You're Mine
by Nautical Paramour
Summary: Harry is obsessed with watching Malfoy, but it leads Hermione to notice Malfoy's friend Theo Nott. As the months roll by, she begins to realize that something is seriously wrong with her classmate, and being Hermione, she has to get to the bottom of it. COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello all! I am so excited to start my next Theo x Hermione story. Although I adore writing the Daphne x Theo, I've been missing Hermione. I really hope that you like what this story holds in store - hopefully some mystery! You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter one and be on the lookout for chapter two in a few days.

* * *

Hermione Granger was feeling more than a little relieved when her friend, Harry Potter, waltzed into the Great Hall more than a little bit late for the Welcoming Feast. He'd disappeared sometime into their train journey back to Hogwarts for their sixth year, and Ron had somehow talked her into leaving the Hogwarts Express without him, insisting that he'd turn up eventually.

"See, I told you he was alright," Ron said between bites of mashed potato, apparently none too bothered by Harry's disheveled appearance.

"Alright?" Hermione asked, her voice going a bit shrill, the tone that always seemed to make Ron roll his eyes at her. Her brown eyes roved over Harry's form while he walked towards the Gryffindor table. "He looks awful, like he was in a scuffle. And is that..." she trailed off.

"Blood," Ginny agreed with a frown.

Before they could discuss it much longer Harry was shoving into the open spot next to Hermione. Immediately, Hermione began looking him over. "Where the hell have you been?" she hissed his way, ignoring the speech that Headmaster Dumbledore was giving. A quick wave of her wand siphoned away the bits of blood that had dribbled down his shirt.

"I nearly got a free ride back to London," Harry said with a sneer. "I went to go listen in on Malfoy, under my cloak of course, but he knew I was there anyway. Broke my nose and left me on the Express."

"You shouldn't have done that Harry," Hermione scolded. "It was...needlessly reckless. You should just, I don't know, leave him alone. Ignore him."

"Not bloody likely!" Ron groused from his spot across the table, before shoveling another bite of his dinner into his mouth. "How can you tell him to leave Malfoy alone after what we all saw this summer?"

The brunette bit her lower lip, thinking over their words. They had followed Malfoy into Knockturn Alley over the summer and seen him at Borgin and Burkes looking at a strange wooden box. None of the friends knew what it was, but Mr. Weasley had let them know it was something known as a Vanishing Cabinet. She could agree that it was suspicious, but she didn't think that they needed to go out of their way to spy on Malfoy, especially not if it meant that Harry would get hurt in the process.

"You heard what your father told us about the Vanishing Cabinet," Hermione reminded him with a whisper, hoping that none of their classmates would be eavesdropping on them. "It has to have a twin to work, and none of us saw Malfoy carrying in a huge cabinet, did we? It's not as if he could ask the school to allow him one without raising suspicions."

Harry gave her a pained looked, and Hermione knew that he agreed with her logic, even if his brain didn't want to agree. He was so certain that Malfoy was up to something, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. "I still say he's a Death Eater."

"Harry! You can't just go running around making accusations like that," she scolded, knowing that it could get her friend in a fair bit of trouble, especially if it wasn't true. Personally, Hermione didn't think that it was likely to be true. After all, Malfoy was just a kid, still.

To Hermione's dismay, Harry was no longer paying attention to her, but was instead staring across the Great Hall towards the Slytherin table, where Malfoy sat, glaring into his soup. "Just look at him," Harry muttered with a frown. "You can tell that something has changed this year. He's more...serious. Not his usual self."

Hermione could agree that her classmate had gone through a bit of a personality transformation from what she could tell so far. Usually over the top and prone to whinging, Malfoy seemed more serious and withdrawn this year. "That doesn't mean that he's a Death Eater, Harry. His father _is_ in Azkaban. I am sure that would put him under a lot of stress."

Harry shook his head, his eyes never leaving Malfoy. "No, he looks _terrible_. Look at the circles under his eyes. He's definitely a Death Eater," he insisted.

She sighed, knowing that Harry was unlikely to be convinced otherwise, no matter what she said. Still, she had to try. "I hardly see how lack of sleep means that you are a Death Eater," she said tartly.

"Easy," Ron quipped. "How could you live with yourself if you did the things the bloody Death Eaters do? How could you sleep at night?"

Hermione swallowed, realizing that he had a point, even though she doubted that the kind of person that willingly chose to become a Death Eater would be that bothered to the point of being unable to sleep at night. She turned to look at Harry, ready to continue the argument, but he was still staring at Malfoy with a singular focus that was a bit unnerving.

She let her own eyes trail over towards the Slytherin table, looking at Malfoy with little interest. She could agree that he didn't look as good as he normally did, but it certainly didn't raise her suspicion. Her eyes wandered over the students. Crabbe and Goyle were shoving their mouths full of sweets quite happily, while Parkinson looked on in disgust.

Moving further down the table, her eyes feel on the form of Nott. Her breath caught in her throat when she finally got a look at him. His shoulders were hunched and he was staring at his plate in disinterest, pushing his food around with a fork. He looked unusually pale and he had a new scar on his jaw line, the puckered pink line standing out against the whiteness of his skin. It was unusual, because most wizards would have a scar magically fixed.

She remembered then that his father was also one of the men who'd been thrown into Azkaban after the Department of Mysteries, so perhaps he hadn't known how to take care of it on his own.

Similarly to Malfoy, he looked as if he hadn't been getting any sleep, his eyes ringed by dark circles, purple and nearly the color of bruises. His face was drawn and gaunt. Nott had always been one of the tallest in their class, but he seemed to be trying to make himself seem as small as possible at the Slytherin table.

"Forget Malfoy," she said to Harry and Ron, feeling a surprising amount of concern for the boy. "Nott looks terrible."

"Who?" Ron asked, turning to look at the Slytherins but not still not recognizing the name or the face.

Hermione rolled her eyes. Of course they wouldn't know who someone was in their own class. Both of the boys could be a little bit self-centered, and Nott didn't go out of his way to make enemies or friends. Really, the only reason Hermione knew to pay attention to him was because they shared so many advanced classes together. Nott was rather smart. He was near her marks in several classes, though it pained her to admit it.

"The boy two to the left of Malfoy," Hermione said, exasperatedly. "Really, you should know who he is. We've only shared classes with him for over five years at this point."

"I think I know him," Harry said with a frown. "He was one of the only students who could see the thestrals the other year. I don't know if he looks much worse than usual. He's always been a bit...rabbity, hasn't he?"

She sucked in a breath wondering how he couldn't see that Nott looked like he was struggling. "That's not a very kind thing to say," she scolded, hating personal attacks based on looks. She still remembered how much Malfoy's cruel taunts about her teeth hurt her feelings. Besides, she thought that there was a big difference between how Nott looked typically and how he looked now. With his toffee colored hair and true blue eyes, there was certainly something arresting about his looks. She hadn't much thought about him, but she decided then that he was typically an attractive guy.

Now, though, he just looked exhausted and... _something_ was wrong with Nott, she was sure of it.

Not wanting to get into the discussion with her friends any more, she let them change the topic of conversation to their new Potions professor, Slughorn, who Harry had met over the summer with Headmaster Dumbledore. Apparently, seeing Harry had been part of the reason why the other man had agreed to come back to teach at Hogwarts. _That_ had certainly gotten Hermione's attention, and she wondered how Slughorn was going to fit into the puzzle. He didn't seem to be too special with gin blossoms on his face.

Try as she might, she couldn't let herself be too distracted by the light-hearted conversation that her friends were having. Her eyes kept being caught by the unassuming form of Theo Nott across the room. He looked up at her once, holding eye contact until Hermione realized that she'd been staring at him for really far too long.

Blushing, Hermione looked away, down at her plate, and she hoped that he didn't think any more about it. After all, it was just that she was feeling a bit _worried_ about him, it wasn't as if she was _interested_ in him. Peeking back at Nott through her lashes, she was glad to see that he was looking away from her. Hopefully she hadn't caused too much suspicion.

She was glad when it was finally time to leave the Great Hall and return to Gryffindor, hoping that it would take her attention from Nott. As she walked through the corridors, she tried to think of a reason to explain away his appearance. It was likely just that he hadn't done well with his father in prison. If she recalled, Nott's father was rather elderly, so it was likely that he was just worried about his father's health. Really, who wouldn't be?

The further away that she got, though, the more she realized that she wasn't able to let it go. Without homework assigned, she had nothing to occupy herself with when she returned to the Common Room. She grew so desperate that she finally asked Ron to play a game of chess with her, which he readily agreed to.

Disturbingly, Harry sat next to the fire all night with the Marauder's Map open, tracing the halls to try and follow Malfoy's path, intent on finding him up to some sort of nefarious plan.

Hoping to help him before he grew even more obsessed, Hermione snatched that map out of his hands, once Ron had beaten her. "Go and play a game with Ron, Harry," she instructed sternly, leaving no room for argument. "I'll let you know if Malfoy leaves the dungeons." Her eyes easily found the dot representing Malfoy, skulking around near the potions classroom.

Harry gave her a pained look before leaving to go and sit with Ron to play. Hermione watched Malfoy for a while before she grew bored with him. Unwittingly, her eyes wandered around the map until she found Nott sitting by himself in the empty (save for Madam Pince) library. She wasn't how long she sat staring at his unmoving dot, but by the time she realized that she was being just as bad as Harry with Malfoy, she stood up abruptly.

Folding the map back up, she handed it off to Harry. "I'm going to try and get some sleep," she told the two boys, before bidding them goodnight. After all, classes started the next day and it would do her no good to spend the evening up watching Nott like some kind of lovesick puppy. Not that she was _in love_ with him or anything - she barely knew him! All the more reason to stop stalking him using a magical map, though.

When her head finally hit the pillow, she was left wondering just what it was about Nott that had caught her attention so firmly.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am really excited to see what you think of this one and what you think of Theo! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter two and be on the lookout for chapter three soon!

* * *

By the end of their first week back at Hogwarts, Hermione was excited for her first potions class. She was intensely curious about the new potions master, Slughorn, and she was interesting to see how she would do in the class without Professor Snape constantly swooping around and breathing down her neck, waiting for her to slip up. She'd always liked Potions, and she was interested to see how she would do this year without having to help Harry and Ron along. _Or Neville,_ she thought privately, feeling very uncharitable for including him. He always _tried_ so hard.

So few of her classmates had achieved the required OWL score in potions to continue with the advanced classes, so they were only holding one class for the sixth years. It felt weird to Hermione to be the only Gryffindor in the class, but she knew that she could do just fine on her own. She scanned the rest of the students to see who all was there.

She gave a friendly wave to Ernie Macmillan, the sole Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw and Slytherin had sent four students each. _Typical_ , Hermione thought to herself, _the Slytherins would do well at potions with Snape coddling them along_.

Swallowing, she pushed that kind of negative talk out of her mind, reminding herself that the OWL exams were not scored by Professor Snape, so they must have done well enough on their own to get into the class. Of course, she knew from her intense rivalry with Malfoy that he was right hand at potions, so it was no surprise to see him there. Parkinson kept close to Malfoy's side, chatting his ear off while they waited for the class to start, though she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he was ignoring her.

Theo Nott talked quietly with Zabini, his long fingers toying with the sharp corners of his new textbook cover. Hermione noted with interest that he was really looking much better than he had at the Welcoming Feast. Color had returned to his cheeks, and it made his new scar seem far less noticeable on his face. He also seemed to have a bit of scruff on his cheeks, and she wondered if he was trying to grow beard to distract from it. It seemed a bit silly that any of their classmates should have a beard.

Seeing him now looking so full of life only made Hermione realize how attractive he really was to her. She wondered why it was that she'd never noticed him before, with his soft looking brown hair. Perhaps it was because he was so shy and quiet, she decided.

Realizing that she had been staring at him again, Hermione quickly looked away, not wanting to caught by her newly-interesting classmate. Instead, she reviewed the Ravenclaws. She was very friendly with Padma Patil and was glad to see her. She was standing with Lisa Turpin and Terry Boot, chatting quietly. Anthony Goldstein stood off to the side, reviewing his notes.

Professor Slughorn walked into the room with a jolly laugh, startling Hermione out of her daydreams. "Good afternoon class," he said jovially. "I am sorry there are so few of you, but I know that only the most dedicated students chose to continue onto the NEWT level. So, congratulations to all of you."

He had just begun to explain how the class would be run - a period of lecture followed by a period of lab work - when Harry and Ron stumbled into the classroom. Hermione whirled around and glared at her two noisy friends, hoping that Harry hadn't decided to stalk Malfoy _during_ class.

"Sorry Professor," Harry apologized, his face bright red when he realized the ruckus they had made. "Professor McGonagall has only just rectified the mistake of potions being left off of our timetables."

Hermione pursed her lips at that, seeing as it was the first that _she_ was hearing of any mistake. She was certain that Harry hadn't wanted to step foot near another cauldron ever again. Perhaps this was some ploy by Dumbledore and Harry to get closer to Professor Slughorn?

Professor Slughorn instructed her two friends to pull a textbook from the back cabinet and Hermione turned to the front of the room, mortified by their behavior. It sounded like they were jostling for a textbook, slamming into the metal of the cabinet. Flushing, Hermione wondered if they knew how it reflected on her when they acted like such savages?

With her focus back on the front of the room, she let her eyes look towards the potions bubbling way behind Professor Slughorn. "Does anyone have any idea of what these potions are?" he asked, his hands resting at his stomach.

She didn't have to be asked twice, immediately throwing her hand up in the air. Slughorn called on her and asked her name. She told him on the way to the front of the room to inspect the potions that were waiting for her.

"This one is polyjuice potion," Hermione said, a hint of a smirk on her face. Of course _she_ had intimate knowledge of that potion, but her classmates wouldn't know about that. She wondered what they would think if they knew that she'd been partially stuck as a cat when she was just a second year having brewed the potion herself. She described the potions most basic qualities.

"Well _done_ , Miss Granger," Slughorn said with an intrigued smile on his face. "And the next one?"

Hermione nibbled at her lower lip while she looked in the cauldron and observed the vapor coming off of it, before giving it a delicate sniff. "This is veritaserum, if I'm not mistaken," she said coolly. "It compels the drinker to tell the truth, and has no discernable smell or taste."

" _Excellent_ work, Miss Granger," Slughorn added, confirming that she was correct. "It's no surprise then that you have ended up in this class. Go on, now, tell us what the last one is."

Peering into the final cauldron, Hermione felt her eyes widen when she saw the mother-of-pearl sheen on the surface of the potion. The spirals of steam all but confirmed what it was that was bubbling away, and she wondered if Slughorn wasn't a little bit irresponsible bringing this potion in a school full of hormonal teenagers. "It's amortentia," she said, disbelief in her voice.

She watched with a bit of amusement as all the girls in the class gave an almost imperceptible half-step forward towards the love potion, even Padma Patil. Hermione could admit that it was a bit intoxicating to think that such a _powerful_ potion was within arms reach.

Hermione leaned forward, letting herself smell the steam that was coming off the potion, letting the scent wash over her. Her eyes slipped shut at such a lovely and welcoming scent. She thought that she could spend all afternoon wrapped up in the scent. "It's the most powerful love potion in the world and it smells different to everyone based on what attracts them most," she said, though her mind was a million miles away. "For me it smells like blood orange and spice...and the woods after a thunderstorm."

"Well, you've just earned Gryffindor fifteen points, Miss Granger," Slughorn complimented her, bringing her hurtling back to the potions classroom, no longer under the tricky pull of the potion. With pupils blown, she looked around the room, blushing to see all of her classmates staring at her. She nodded curtly, before returning back to her spot. "Of course, amortentia doesn't create _real_ love, but a very dangerous, obsessive attraction."

Slughorn gave a little laugh, seeing how intensely curious the students remained by the potion. "Oh, alright then. Queue up and give the cauldron a whiff yourself," he said with a wave of his hand. "Perhaps you'll be surprised by what you _smell_."

Hermione had the curious vantage point of getting to watch all of her classmates smell the cauldron full of amortentia. Pansy Parkinson had to be shoved out of the way by Lisa Turpin, having spent too long with her little nose in the steam. Each of her male classmates reluctantly gave a sniff before their eyes grew large with surprise based on whatever it was that they found.

Theo Nott was the last to go and Hermione watched the quiet boy with far more interest than she should have. He leaned over imperceptibly, the steam barely hitting him in the face before his eyes were slipping shut, his face transformed by contentment and pure desire. His mouth fell open just a bit, and it looked like he would have been happy to stand there all day if he were allowed.

All too soon, though, he seemed to come back into himself, his eyes snapping open. Hermione wondered if he could tell that she'd been watching him curiously the whole time, because when his eyes opened, his blue eyes bored into hers.

She blushed and looked away immediately, upset at having been caught staring at him a second time in a week. Just what was wrong with her that she found Theo Nott so thoroughly interesting this year, she wondered? It wasn't as if she'd ever given him more than a passing thought before.

Luckily, there was no time for her to spend agonizing over being caught red-handed because Professor Slughorn was instructing them to create a Draught of the Living Death and that whoever had the best potion at the end of class would receive a vial of Felix Felicis.

Hermione quickly opened her textbook and read through all of the instructions. It seemed tricky enough and there were so many steps that she was immediately absorbed into the task at hand. She was glad that they were all working alone because she didn't want to be responsible to assist Ron or Harry if she was going to win the potion.

However, the further along she got in her tasks, the more Hermione realized that her brewing was getting out of control. Try as she might, she could keep control of her ingredients, the written instructions failing her at every turn. She was growing hot from the steam of the cauldron, her hair growing more and more wild.

Out of her peripheral vision, she noticed that Harry was quite absorbed in his own potion, for once completely forgetting that Malfoy was in the same room as him. Hermione took a small break, only to see that he was getting along very well with his own work. She frowned, noticing him deviating from the directions in his tatty old textbook.

"Harry, what _are_ you doing?" she demanded, a tendril of jealousy wrapping around her stomach firmly when she realized that Harry was doing _better_ than her. "That's _not_ what's written in the directions," she insisted when he gave his potion one additional turn.

"I don't know, Hermione," Harry responded sheepishly. "Whoever had this textbook before I did left some helpful additions in the margins. And, my potion is obviously getting on rather well. Just look at it."

Hermione certainly did _not_ want to agree with him about his potion being _better_ than hers, when she followed the prescribed order of the book and Harry did not. However, by the end of the class period, when Professor Slughorn was just gushing on and on about how _amazing_ Harry's potion was, she had to admit that his had been better. Not that she'd be mentioning anything about it to him - he was so full of himself that his head might explode.

And so, she had to watch with a bitter taste in her mouth when Slughorn handed over the vial of Felix Felicis to Harry with a fake smile on her face. It was silly to be so upset over something that she probably _never_ would have found a use for anyway. It was just that she wasn't used to having her talent looked over that stung so much.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so excited that some of you are already starting to have some theories as to what's up with Theo! Feel free to share them, but I probably won't confirm or deny - don't want to spoil anything! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter three and be on the lookout for chapter four soon!

* * *

Hermione had felt on edge ever since Harry had outwitted her in the first potions class, receiving heaps of praise from their professor. He'd owed all of his success to the scrawled handwriting in _all_ of the margins of the textbook pages, which looked oddly familiar, though she couldn't quite place it. Hermione was horrified that someone would have defaced a textbook like that, but she also was worried that there was more than meets the eye to it.

Ron had snarked at her that she was just _jealous_ at not being the best in class for once, something that made Hermione bristle. It was only half-way true, anyway.

It was refreshing for Harry to talk about the textbook rather than just wildly speculate about whatever it was that Malfoy was up to. Hermione had reluctantly agreed that Malfoy _did_ seem to be having a rough go of his year. He wasn't up to any of his usual tricks and hadn't gone out of his way to tease her for being a muggleborn, but Hermione certainly wasn't going to go around complaining about that.

Between the potions textbook, Malfoy and Quidditch, Hermione was feeling oddly separated from Harry and Ron this year. Obviously they went through ebbs and flows in their friendships, but she was surprised to feel a bit of...relief when she was able to go off and do her own thing. For the first time she was glad that she was taking so many advanced classes, just because the boys weren't taking them. It certainly felt a bit uncharitable, but she couldn't help how she felt.

She started the second week of classes with double arithmancy. The week before had been spent completing assessment assignments, so that Professor Vector could determine how much that they had forgotten over the summer.

Sliding into one of the empty seats in the front of the class, Hermione waited for Professor Vector to begin class. She'd already read practically all of the textbook for the year seeing as it was her favorite class. After seeing what was in store for the year, she was eager to get deep into the material, which seemed to be complex and innovative.

"Alright class, quiet down," Professor Vector called from the front of the class. A wave of her wand at the stack of parchment at her desk sent them flying back to their respective owners. "Your homework was illuminating. I am glad to say that you haven't all gathered wool between your ears over the summer," she praised them with a smile on her face.

Hermione eagered unfurled her own parchment and was glad to see that she'd received full marks and a few complimentary notes from her Professor.

"We will be mixing things up a bit this year," Vector continued from her spot, leaning against her podium at the front of the class. "You will be working on a longer project that will span the whole semester, with a partner. This will require significant collaboration."

Spinning in her chair halfway, Hermione immediately began looking around the class for who she might pair with. She knew that Padma was likely to partner with Mandy Brocklehurst, but perhaps she could convince Susan Bones to pair with her, or maybe Terry Boot.

Professor Vector let out a laugh, seeing the mad scramble of significant looks to find a partner, before shaking her head. "Don't go getting attached just yet," she said simply. "I've already assigned you all partners using your assignments as a guide. Hopefully you've done your best."

Murmurs and groans rippled through the class and Hermione wondered if other people had been slacking a bit. She was curious to learn who she'd be paired with, but knew that there was nothing to be done until her name was announced. Head held high, Hermione waited for Professor Vector to read out the names.

"Miss Bones, you'll be paired with Mister Malfoy," Vector said, calling out the first name. Hermione shot the redheaded girl a sorry look, hoping that she wouldn't get too much trouble with Malfoy. She was ashamed to feel a niggling relief that it wasn't _her_ that was paired with the snotty Slytherin. "Mister Boot, you'll be working with Miss Patil."

Hermione frowned to hear that, knowing that the class was really rather small. Being that it was such an advanced elective, many students didn't opt to take it, so her potential options were really dwindling rapidly.

"Miss Granger," Professor Vector finally called on her, gaining Hermione's attention. "You'll be paired with Mister Nott."

She was shocked to be paired with Theo Nott, wondering what it was about this year that was making him so much more noticeable before. Before the Welcoming Feast, he rarely crossed her mind twice, but now she seemed destined to keep coming back to him again and again. He wouldn't be a _totally_ unsalvageable partner, Hermione decided, knowing that he really was quite smart. He always provided the right answer when he was called on in class, though he never raised his hand to answer himself.

 _And_ , she reminded herself darkly, _she could have had Malfoy as a partner_.

Once Professor Vector had finished pairing everyone off, she instructed them to move to sit next to their partners. Hermione looked up at Nott, but he had his eyes firmly on the paper in front of him and made no move to make eye contact to move. _Well_ , Hermione thought, feeling annoyed, _I suppose I'll be the one who will have to move_. Gathering up her bag, Hermione moved to the empty spot at Nott's table, even if it meant that she was having to give up her coveted front seat.

He didn't look up at her, not even when she slammed her knee into the supporting leg of the table, cursing under her breath. Getting ahold of herself, Hermione decided to make the best of this. Giving him a half smile, she turned to face Nott in the chair. "Nott," she said in greeting.

"Granger," he answered, his eyes completely unmoved from his assignment.

Unable to resist, Hermione looked at the score that he'd gotten and was pleasantly surprised to see that he'd gotten full marks as well. At least she wouldn't have to spend any time getting him up to speed. "I'm looking forward to working with you," she said while she waited for Professor Vector to come around and discuss their assignment with them.

Nott did not respond, and instead rolled his eyes, if she wasn't mistaken. Hermione huffed, a pang of hurt in her heart when she saw how visibly uncomfortable Nott was to work with her. He couldn't even look her in her eyes for Merlin's sakes! She knew that he was a Slytherin, but he certainly wasn't Crabbe or Goyle either. He'd never gone around calling people mudbloods or hexing anyone. She'd always imagined that he was one of the more decent Slytherins, but perhaps he just was more subtle in his prejudice.

Before she could think on it any longer, Professor Vector was standing in front of them, giving them a description of their project. They would be working on predicting the order of the graduating class list that year, using the students previous six years of study to aid in their calculations. Of course, all the information had been randomized and anonymized, but Hermione was interested to see how she stacked up against the students in the year ahead of her.

Still, she knew that this was going to be a massive undertaking, and they would need to work all term, rather than putting it off until the last minute. Looking at the big clock on the wall, Hermione realized that class was nearly over. "We should probably plan some goals and milestones along the way so that the work doesn't sneak up on us," she said to Nott, pushing her hair out of her face.

He sniffed at her pronouncement, before _finally_ turning to look at her. The moment that his eyes met hers, she was filled again with a mysterious zing of curiosity. She wanted to know _more_ about Theo Nott. "That won't be necessary," he answered with a frown on his face. "There is plenty of work here that doesn't need to be done jointly. We should just split the students down the middle and meet up towards the end of the term to see how they all work together."

Hermione returned his frown. "Absolutely not," she argued, holding onto her quill more tightly. "You heard Professor Vector, we are supposed to be working together on this, and I won't let you ruin my marks just because you don't want to work with a _muggleborn_."

"It's not-I wasn't-" he cut himself off, running a hand through his longish brown hair. It drew her eyes to the puckered skin at his jaw. He'd shaved again, losing the scruff from the other week, showing off the scar she'd noticed earlier. It seemed to be healing nicely, but still she had no idea why he wouldn't just ask Madam Pomfrey for help. "I insist that we split up the work. You don't need me to hold your hand and help you through the assignment. We are both smart enough to work on our own," he said coolly.

Before Hermione could counter, the bell was ringing, telling them that it was time to move onto their next class. She would have to hustle if she would be able to make it out to the greenhouses in time for Herbology. "Listen, Nott," she said with a start, throwing her book bag over one shoulder. "I don't really have time to keep debating this with you right now. Meet me in the library tonight after dinner and we can finish discussing our plan for the project."

She didn't wait for him to argue back with her, knowing that she wasn't going to budge on this. They had been instructed to work together and she was going to at least try it out before she agreed to his way of thinking. Nearly sprinting out of the classroom so that he wouldn't be able to get her attention, she didn't stop until she was outside in the cool, autumn air, walking across the lush green of the Hogwarts lawn. The leaves were already changing colors, but few had dropped yet.

Storming into the greenhouses, her cheeks rosy and flushed, Ron's eyes widened in surprise. "Whoa, what's got you on the warpath?" he asked.

Hermione softened, uncharacteristically touched that Harry and Ron were finally paying enough attention to her to realize that she was upset. "It's nothing, just something from Arithmancy," she said breezily, knowing that both Harry and Ron would glaze over as soon as she started talking about the difficult class. She wasn't sure why, but she didn't want to mention Nott to them again.

If she was honest, she wasn't sure _why_ she was bothered in the first place that he didn't want to work with her. It wasn't as though she'd been gagging for him as a partner, either. Maybe it was just that she...expected more out of him than to be just another prejudiced snob. That he was _different_ from the rest because he was quiet and _smart_ , like her. Though that was a bit silly, seeing as she had no reason to think that way to begin with. Being smart didn't preclude you from being prejudiced - Malfoy, proved that easily enough. Hell, even Voldemort proved that.

Or maybe it was that lingering feeling that there was something not entirely right about Nott this year. The knowledge that crept around on the back recesses of her consciousness that something was _wrong_ with him. An itch that made her want to just get to the bottom of it, but she couldn't manage to put her finger on it, no matter how much she stared at him. Even worse, it was none of her business to begin with.

But, she was sure that it was a bad thing that she was looking forward to seeing him later in the library.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I seriously loved reading through all your theories! There will be some more hints along the way, for sure. We've got a bit more Theo-Hermione interaction in this one. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter four and be on the lookout for chapter five soon!

* * *

Hermione had barely been able to eat dinner, picking over bits of roasted chicken and potatoes, all the while worrying about what it would be like to meet with Nott. She hadn't told Harry or Ron that she was going to be meeting anyone in the library, but to no one's surprise, they hadn't wanted to come along with her either.

Making the walk towards the library, she couldn't stop fidgeting with the strap of her bag, once again overcome with the feeling that things were not quite _right_ in the school. Maybe it was just the heightened danger now that Voldemort was no longer hiding once he'd been seen by so many people at the Ministry, putting everyone on edge. It seemed as if no one could be trusted.

She wondered if Nott would even bother to show up in the library at all. Although it was embarrassing to admit, she'd scanned the Slytherin table several times throughout the entirety of dinner and she hadn't seen him. Maybe he would rather hide away in the dungeons than be forced to converse with her outside of class.

The library was relatively empty. It was far too early in the term for most people to willingly step foot inside Hermione's favorite place in the whole entire castle. Nibbling her lower lip, she realized that she hadn't specified a location to meet Nott in. Floundering for a moment, she finally decided that she would just head back towards her usual table.

To her surprise, she found Nott already seated at her usual spot, head tipped back and his eyes closed, as though he were trying to snatch a little extra sleep. "Oh," she murmured, the exclamation slipping past her lips before she had a chance to observe his face.

His eyes snapped open, his pupils constricting back to show a generous ring of blue iris. He had rather gorgeous eyes, Hermione could admit. They were a deeper blue than Ron's, darker and inscrutable. She watched as his jaw clenched when he looked at her, his previously serene expression completely erased. Hermione frowned, irked with his inability to hide his obvious disdain for her.

"Granger," he breathed out her name finally, tipping his head in greeting.

"Nott," she returned, before setting down her book back. "I didn't know if you were actually going to show up. You weren't at dinner."

The corners of his lips quirked up in baffled amusement, as though he couldn't decide if he should be smirking or smiling at her. "You noticed, Granger?" he asked, leaning back further in his chair. "Usually no one notices me."

She wasn't sure if he was being self-deprecating or sharing some of the misery of his anonymity with her. "Well, I'm not no one, am I?" she countered, pulling out a quill and parchment. "I didn't realize that you knew where I normally sit."

Nott didn't respond to that, didn't make any movement to indicate that he'd even heard her. Hermione blushed, suddenly recognizing how her words could be construed. She felt rather hot, sitting there with him. It was odd to be conversing with him, when they'd barely even spoken before. And now it was just the two of them, and he wouldn't stop staring at her with that predator's look in his eyes.

Swallowing, Hermione decided to get down to why they were there in the first place. She was sure that Nott didn't appreciate being there any longer than necessary. "I think we should devise a time table to meet throughout the term to work on our project," she said, scribbling notes at the top of her parchment. "I was thinking twice a week, but we could also meet once a week for longer, if that would be more convenient to you."

Laughter pierced the stillness of the library, shocking Hermione. She didn't think she could remember ever _hearing_ Nott laugh, and so far, she'd thought that he rather humorless. His face was made all the more handsome by his laughter, but it didn't cancel out how derisive it was. "Oh, I haven't _agreed_ to work with you on this project, yet, Granger," he said, amusement pulling one side of his mouth up in a lopsided smile. "We simply haven't finished our argument yet."

She felt her mouth drop open in shock, processing that the normally taciturn Nott had decided to talk back to her like that. Harry and Ron didn't even speak to her that way, and she wasn't entirely sure how she should respond. Snapping her mouth shut, she took a deep breath to collect her thoughts. "It's impossible for us not to work together, Nott."

"Why not?" he pressed her further. Now he _definitely_ was smirking at her, seeing the rise that he was getting out of her. "It seems perfectly reasonable that we should just split up the list of students. We could even split them by gender or house association to give us more variables to include."

"Why not? Because any assumptions we make using the data will be very specific to the methods that we use to identify trends," she argued, quite passionately, knowing that this was a subject she felt highly qualified to discuss. She _loved_ arithmancy, and Nott might have equivalent scores to her, but there was no way that he enjoyed it as much as her.

He leaned forward, his hands pressed into the table, and Hermione was momentarily struck by how tall he was. "So, we will just document the methods that we are using and compare them at the end," Nott countered.

"And then when one of us identifies a _better_ method, we are in a mad scramble to recalculate everything right at the end of the project?" she asked with a snort. "No thank you, Nott. I'd rather just do it right the first time."

"There are a limited number of arithmetic methods that can be used in this applicati-"

"I've been known to be quite _innovative_ in arithmancy," she snarled back at him, wondering what it was about Theo Nott that was getting under her skin so much. Maybe it was that he seemed to be actually knowledgeable enough about the subject to have a proper debate with her.

"Oh, so you are sure that you'll just have to be redoing my work at the end of term, then?" he accused, rolling his eyes at her. "You aren't the only intelligent one, Granger."

"Would you just _listen_ to my point of view for a minute?" she demanded, unsure of when their discussion had grown to be quite so contentious, but trying to reel it back in all the same. "It's not as if I'm chomping at the bit to work with you on this either. I'm not angling to spend time with you, as _difficult_ as that might be for you to comprehend."

His nostrils were flaring and if she wasn't mistaken, she saw a flash of hurt in his eyes and his shoulders slumped. In any case, the harsh words did seem to calm things down for a bit. "Fine, state your case," Nott finally ordered, with a wave of his hand.

"Nott, our calculations will be most precise if we are able to identify and control for trends that are found in all the available data," she said calmly, determined not to keep sniping at him. "If we split up the students, we might miss something big. I'm sure that's why Professor Vector wants us to work together."

He took a deep breath, but seemed to be honestly thinking over her argument. It was odd, she could practically see him turning the merits of it over in his mind. "Fine, we can start working side-by-side," he eventually conceded. "We can assess what methods we are using and if there are any overarching trends that are sticking out to us."

"Thank you, Nott," she responded, feeling relief that he had come around to her way of thinking.

"But then, I think after a few meetings, we should decide if continuing to work together is really necessary," he added on, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "I wouldn't want to _burden_ you with my presence more than absolutely necessary, Granger."

She was about to contradict him, to tell him that it wasn't as if she was _actually_ opposed to working with him. Hermione had only actually said that because she was under the impression that he'd rather work with _anyone_ else but her; it hurt her, and she had wanted to hurt him back, to bruise his ego.

Just as she was about to open her mouth, though, she was cut off by Madam Pince. "This library is not for you to hold your debates, Miss Granger, Mister Nott," she said sternly, looking utterly disappointed in the pair. "Really, I expect better out of the two of you. You are disrupting other students who would like to _study_ in _silence_ , and I will have to ask the pair of you to leave."

Hermione flushed, wanting to placate the stern matron. "Oh, please Madam Pince, I didn't realize how loud we'd gotten," Hermione said, trying to smooth it over. "We'll be more quiet now, I promise."

"You won't get me to budge on this, Miss Granger," Madam Pince said, her mouth in a firm line that Hermione knew better than to argue with. "But, you can come back tomorrow, if you can learn to use your _inside voice_."

She hated being patronized to, but Hermione knew that she was getting nowhere with her. Lifting her book bag up on her shoulder, she groaned, knowing that she really shouldn't stuff it with quite so many books. She waited while Theo also gathered up his work, all the while under the watchful eye of the librarian.

"Well, should we meet back here at the end of the week, then Nott?" Hermione asked, annoyed that they still hadn't managed to work out a schedule. "We didn't exactly get anything concrete figured out."

He scrunched his nose, but nodded anyway. "Sure, we can meet here after arithmancy on Friday," he agreed eventually.

While she was staring up at him, wondering when the hell Nott had grown quite so _tall_ , she stumbled over her own feet. Fully expecting the ground to meet her face, Hermione pulled her arms up to try and at least protect her face. But, she never met the ground, instead overwhelmed by the sensation of being in Nott's arms.

He let go of her as soon as humanly possible, as though she might burn him, but she was grateful for his quick reflexes all the same. "Nice catch," she complimented him, while they resumed their side-by-side walk out of the library. "I would imagine someone with your reflexes would be welcome on a Quidditch squad. How come you've never played?" she wondered aloud.

Nott rounded in front of her, as soon as they'd left the library and looked down at her sternly. "Why I choose to play or not play Quidditch is really none of your business," he barked at her, sternly. If she wasn't mistaken she saw the hint of a blush starting on his cheeks. "Listen, Granger, I don't know when you started paying attention to me so much, but you should leave it alone."

She did not enjoy being called out like she was obsessed with him. She didn't pay that much attention to Nott, not until recently at least. There was nothing wrong with being observant. "It was just friendly conversation," she said petulantly.

"Well, maybe we should keep our conversations strictly academic from now on?" he suggested snidely.

Hermione scoffed, but was unable to think of a clever retort in time. He was already turning away from her and skulking down the hallway in the direction of the dungeons. Realizing how close it was to curfew, Hermione knew that she would need to hurry herself if she wanted to get back to Gryffindor Tower without being harassed by Filch.

She might be a prefect, but the caretaker didn't seem to care much.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! No Theo interaction in this chapter, but maybe it will give you a bit more to think about. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter five and be on the lookout for chapter six later this week!

* * *

In the blink of an eye, September was nearly over. Hermione's seventeenth birthday had come and gone with little fanfare from her friends. Neither Harry nor Ron had gotten her a present, which was _fine._ They usually didn't get presents for one another, but seventeen was a big year in the wizarding world. She was now _of age_ , so she thought that maybe they would have gotten her _something_.

They had realized that they'd completely forgotten about her birthday before the day was over, sneaking out of the common room to get a small cake prepared by the house elves with the help of Dobby. It was nice to sit in front of the dwindling fire by themselves, eating chocolate cake with their fingers because the boys had forgotten forks.

It had been wonderful to spend the night, not worrying about classes, and Harry finally laid off of talking about Malfoy for once. He'd even left his precious potions textbook in his dorm. It was almost like old times.

But, then, her birthday was over, and they got back to reality.

Harry was back to watching Malfoy on the Marauder's Map and Ron was busy talking about Quidditch. Hermione was pleased that he'd made it onto the squad as the Keeper, narrowly winning out over Cormac McLaggen, but his ego had grown substantially after the shock had worn off. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd interfered with the tryouts at the very end, and she doubted that she ever would, knowing how hurt she would be.

Hermione had returned to her studies. It was never too early to begin studying for exams, or even NEWTs the following year. After all, her scores would be _hugely_ influential for what jobs she could have after they left Hogwarts. Back in third year, when she'd used the time turner, she'd devised an elaborate system of revising to make sure that she had everything absolutely covered. She hadn't stopped using it, since.

This year, though, the work was quickly piling up, seeing as many of her advanced classes just expected more work out of all of them. Ancient Runes had them translating huge swaths of text nearly every week and they had so much ground to catch up on in Defense Against the Dark Arts.

To her surprise, the one class that she felt she had a firm handle on her project was Arithmancy. The volume of data that she and Nott were working with was vast and overwhelming, but she could admit that he was an extremely efficient and careful student as well. It was totally understandable why Professor Vector wanted them to work on it together because there was no way in hell she would have been able to get through it all in the allotted time on her own.

After they had agreed to work together, Nott hadn't mentioned them splitting up the work another time. They met on Tuesdays and Fridays after their Arithmancy classes for at least an hour after dinner to try and make a dent in the mountain of tasks that had built up.

Hermione was pleasantly surprised at what a good partner Nott was turning out to be, especially after the rocky beginnings their relationship had, and knowing that he didn't want to work with her. He met her in the library everyday without complaint, and had even started staying later than their agreed upon hour to work on some other essays, occasionally.

It was _nice_ , Hermione decided, to have another studious person to keep her company, after being alone for so long.

He wasn't smart with everything he did of course. She'd had a peek at his Charms essay and was horrified with what she'd seen. For someone who could write incredibly technical and concise essays for arithmancy, he seemed incapable of the same with Professor Flitwick's assignments. She wanted so badly to offer to help him, but she hadn't quite worked up the nerve yet.

Nott made her laugh. He could always be counted on for a witty comment or observation, and he did a smashing impression of Professor Slughorn. Without discussing it, they'd begun sitting next to one another in Arithmancy class only, though they rarely talked in front of the rest of their classmates, instead sitting in companionable silence furiously taking notes.

Hermione was hopeful that maybe by the end of the term they might be actual friends, but she wasn't going push her luck. Who knew what would happen as the wall between them was chipped down one study session after the next. Besides, if she and Nott became actually friends, that would mean coming clean to Harry and Ron who remained blissfully ignorant of the budding relationship between her and the handsome Slytherin.

Because of how well they were working together, Hermione had been surprised when he hadn't showed up for their Friday arithmancy class. None of the other Slytherins in the class looked particularly concerned, nor did Professor Vector. She decided to just keep her thoughts to herself and interrogate him later in the evening when she saw him at the library.

But then, he hadn't been at dinner either. Her eyes ran up and down the Slytherin table _multiple_ times, and she hadn't seen one hint of him. And, Hermione would have recognized him immediately. She spent an embarrassing amount of time looking at his particular brown shade of hair, wondering if it was as soft as it looked. He was always running his fingers through it while he read, and it was more than a little distracting.

 _Still_ , she had gone to the library, wanting to see if the elusive Theo Nott would at least show up there. In retrospect, it was a little silly of her to be sitting in the library all by herself on a Friday night, while the rest of her friends were laughing and hanging out back in Gryffindor tower, waiting for a Slytherin who she wasn't even sure liked her. Hell, she wasn't even sure if she liked _him_.

He hadn't shown up, no matter how late she had waited.

Ron and Harry were waiting for her when she arrived back, narrowly missing curfew, staring at Ginny and Dean. They didn't seem too bothered when she'd told them she just wanted to get an early nights rest.

On Saturday, she let the boys convince her to get out of the castle for a little bit, watching them run Quidditch drills. She was feeling a little bit down at being stood-up by Nott, and she thought that it was a good way to keep her mind off of him for a few hours. It worked, and she was laughing and in bright spirits by the time that they stumbled into the Great Hall for dinner, laughing.

She made it nearly through half of the roasted pork dinner before Harry was bringing her attention to the Slytherin table _again_. Unbidden, she began searching for Nott.

"I can't believe that Malfoy isn't playing Quidditch this year," Harry said, sounding more than a bit glum.

"Right, mate," Ronald said between bites of carrot and parsnip. "It won't feel right trouncing Slytherin this year if you aren't the one who snatches the snitch right from under his nose."

"No," Harry said before slumping forward so that no one could overhear what it was that they were talking about. "I mean that...well, don't you think it's suspicious? He's wanted to beat me in everything that he's done since we were first years, and suddenly he's just giving up."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Maybe Malfoy isn't quite as _obsessed_ with you as you thought," she argued back, annoyed to be having the same conversation with Harry again. It seemed to be something that he just couldn't let go. "Or maybe he's decided to focus on his studies this year."

"Not bloody likely!" Ron argued back. "I see what you mean, Harry. He probably needed all the time that he could scrape together to work on whatever it is You-Know-Who has gone him working on."

"For the last time, you have to stop throwing around baseless accusations like that," Hermione said, tersely, positive that this was only going to get Harry into trouble, especially once Malfoy caught wind of what Harry was saying about him. "There is _nothing_ suspicious about not playing Quidditch."

"I dunno, just look at him," Ron said, glaring at the blond sitting across the Great Hall from them, his arms crossed. "He just _looks_ like he's plotting something."

Hermione finally _did_ look at Malfoy, but all she could focus on was the boy sitting next to him. She wasn't sure when he'd slipped into the Great Hall, but Nott was now occupying the seat next to Malfoy. She was barely able to contain her gasp of surprise at seeing the condition that he was in.

He looked as awful as he had at the beginning of the school year. He was pale and his face was drawn in pain. He had a fresh set of dark circles under his eyes, and he looked utterly _exhausted_. For whatever reason, he'd stopped shaving from the last time that she'd seen him and now he wore that scruff around his jaw again, obscuring the scar on his cheek, even though it was fading well as the weeks went on.

Malfoy was talking to him furiously, but Nott was obviously annoyed at whatever it was that was being said. Nott began arguing back, staring his friend down. That was _odd_ , Hermione decided, wondering what it was that the two were disagreeing about so vehemently. She'd quickly learned that Nott and Malfoy were friends - had been since children - based on the off-hand comments Nott would sometimes make in the library, but she also knew that he didn't put up with some of the bullshit that Malfoy did. He was never going to _fall in line_ like Crabbe and Goyle.

Hermione bit her lower lip, wondering if she should bring Harry and Ron's attention to the little argument, but they had moved on from talking about Malfoy. Blushing, she wondered how long she'd been staring at the two Slytherins. No, she would leave her bickering friends to their important discussion on if Puddlemere United or the Chudley Canons would win the League that year. (That was preposterous - even Hermione knew that it would be Puddlemere, and she didn't follow Quidditch).

Instead, she would just worry quietly to herself about why Nott was looking so terrible again, and why he'd missed class and their study session without so much as a note or a nod in her direction.

She wanted to ask Nott where he had been, but she knew that he would say it was none of her business. Well, it _was_ her business, Hermione decided, knowing that he'd left her to do all of their work by herself the night before. So really, she deserved an explanation at least.

"What is wrong with you?" Ron asked, snapping his fingers in front of her face. "You've been staring off into space all evening."

Blushing even harder, Hermione was glad that they hadn't caught where she was looking. "What was that? I was thinking about Arithmancy."

"Of course you were," Ron said, rolling his eyes. He'd always belittled her love of academia, but Hermione pushed down her annoyance, not wanting to get into another fight. Merlin, sometimes she wondered just why she had a crush on him in the first place.

"Erm, Hermione, Ron was just wanting to know if you wanted to go back to the Common Room to play some exploding snap or if you were planning on going to the library," Harry said, knowing he needed to play peacekeeper. "Seamus has some butterbeer."

Knowing that she probably should go to the library, Hermione quickly agreed to go back with them. If she spent the evening at her usual table, she was sure to get nothing done, too focused on wondering just what Theo Nott was getting up to to do any real work at all.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so excited about this story. So, fyi, when I started out, I thought that this was going to be 22 chapters, but I've decided to expand it, because I just felt that there was more story to be told past where I initially decided to end it. I am still working on the plotting, but I am guessing that this will actually be between 30 and 40 chapters. I hope this is welcome news to most of you? You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter six and be on the lookout for chapter seven soon!

* * *

The morning after seeing how terrible Nott looked in the Great Hall, Hermione was consumed with guilt. She'd automatically assumed the worst when he hadn't showed up for their meeting, and he'd probably been really ill if he'd still looked that bad a whole twenty-four hours later. He'd likely missed at least a whole day's worth of classes, and would be stuck playing catch up.

It only seemed right to share her class notes for Arithmancy with him. Yes, he could probably ask Malfoy for his notes, but she owed it to her partner to make sure that he got the _best_ notes possible, especially if they were going to work together. And, Hermione was positive that there would be no notes that were better than her own.

The only problem was figuring out where to find him. If he was off in the Slytherin Common Room, there was no chance of her sneaking in to chat with him. Instead, she headed off to the library, determined to search the stacks and hoping to find Nott tucked away in some desk. She knew that he spent a fair amount of time there, though not as much as she did.

However, her pass of the library ended up falling short, and she did not see any sign of Nott, no matter how hard she looked. With her back pressed up against a bookcase, Hermione nibbled on her lower lip, trying to come up with a plan of action. It was difficult, seeing as it was Sunday, and there were no classes. Nott could really be _anywhere_ in this whole damn castle.

Just as Hermione was about to give up and just ask Harry to borrow the Marauder's Map, which would really cause far too many questions for her liking, Hermione heard hushed voices coming from the aisle over.

"Theo's gone back to the infirmary for the day," a voice - Malfoy's if she wasn't mistaken - said in a hushed, concerned tone.

"Well how did things go on Friday?" another voice answered. This time, there was no confusing Blaise Zabini's voice. "He looked fucking awful, but you know that he won't talk about it with me."

"How well can it go, Blaise?" Malfoy sneered back. "I doubt that it ever gets any easier to handle."

Hermione hoped that they didn't hear her hushed intake of breath, wondering just what it was that they were talking about. She hoped it _wasn't_ what it sounded like. Of course, it would fit if they were discussing doing Voldemort's business. It was certainly no secret that Nott _and_ Malfoy both had fathers in Azkaban, while Zabini decidedly did not. Though he was a prejudiced Slytherin same as the rest of them, Zabini at least still held the illusion of impartiality.

But of course, it begged the question, what if Nott really was a Death Eater? Did she want to help him out then? Or did it disqualify him from her concern?

She warred with herself for several minutes before deciding that she would go see him at least anyway. Even if he _was_ a Death Eater, at least he seemed to be broken up about whatever it was that he had to do. Hermione decided that she would at least give him the benefit of the doubt.

Waiting until she was sure that Zabini and Malfoy were gone, Hermione slipped out of the library and off towards the infirmary. The hallways were thankfully deserted, seeing as it was uncharacteristically warm outside and students were hoping to enjoy one of the last nice days of autumn before the snow came. Cautiously, she turned the knob on the door to the infirmary and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that even Madame Pomfrey seemed to be out for the afternoon.

It was easy for Hermione to find Nott, seeing as he was the only one laid up at the moment. She crept to his side, only to realize that he was asleep. Pulling up a chair, she cringed at hearing the metal legs scrape along the floor. Hermione sat in it before staring at her classmate. A part of her felt bad for essentially spying on him, but another part of her was just too curious to walk away.

In sleep, Nott looked uncharacteristically peaceful. She hadn't realized it, but all term, he'd been carrying so much tension in his brow, as though he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Now, though, he was relaxed and boyish.

He really was unfairly handsome, Hermione decided. When they were younger, he had been rather stringy and rabbity, as Harry had classified him. However, it was clear that he'd gone through some sort of swan transformation that Hermione secretly wished would happen to her. She'd been truly pretty at the Yule Ball, shocking her classmates, but she didn't have the patience to put in all that effort just to look good every morning, not when she had better things to do with her time.

Not Theo Nott, though. He apparently didn't have to put any effort in, seeing as he still looked good, despite how sick he was. With his strong jawline and straight nose, he looked masculine, a trait that was only aided by his broad shoulders. His hair, normally perfectly coiffed, was mussed by sleep, causing Hermione to smile.

She was momentarily distracted by the bottles of potions at his bedside. Her curiosity was getting the better of her, but she couldn't quite read the labels from where she was sat. Nibbling her lower lip, she gave Nott a quick glance and relaxed, seeing that he still looked deep asleep. Standing, she crept around to the other side of hospital bed.

Hermione reached out her hand to spin to potions bottles around, wanting to read the label. Just as she was about to touch it, a hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist tightly, halting her progress.

Nearly jumping out of her skin, Hermione pressed her free hand to her chest to ease her rapidly beating heart. "Great _Godric_ , Nott!" she said, seeing the hand attached to her sick classmate. "You scared the pants off of me."

Nott did not seem amused by her turn of phrase, practically glaring at her. "Well, perhaps you shouldn't have been skulking around, sticking your nose where it doesn't belong," he snarled at her. His hand tightened around her small wrist, not letting it go. "I don't appreciate having my privacy invaded like this, Granger."

Hermione stared down at his long fingers wrapped around her, feeling the strength he possessed. _He is holding back_ , she realized with shock. "I'm sorry, Nott. I didn't mean to pry," she apologized, but realizing how lame it sounded. "I just was...curious. I was worried about you."

He recoiled, hearing her words. "Don't _pretend_ like you are worried about me," he said with a frown. "You will never be able to lie as well as a Slytherin." Reluctantly, he released her wrist.

She caught her lower lip between her teeth, trying to decide what to do. Finally, she moved back around the bed, feeling Nott's eyes follow her the whole way. Taking a deep breath, she sat back down in the chair, pressing her hands to her knees. She wasn't entirely sure how to proceed. The whole time she had been planning on getting her notes to Nott, she hadn't thought about what she'd actually say to him.

"What _are_ you doing here, Granger?" Nott demanded, sitting up in the bed, pulling the blankets up with him. Hermione was temporarily struck by the intimacy of the situation and felt a bit shameful for the way that she'd barged in on him. He looked up and down the hospital ward, seeing none of the other beds occupied. "Neither of your little sidekicks are hurt, so why did you come?"

Hermione blushed bright red, scolding herself for being so foolish for coming to visit him before thinking over the consequences. What if one of his Slytherin friends had come by to speak with him? It had been reckless and stupid, but she couldn't just run away _now_. "I...you missed class," she started, playing with a bit of fuzz on her jumper.

"Well spotted, Granger," Nott answered sarcastically. She could practically _hear_ him roll his eyes at her. "Didn't know you missed me so much."

Her head snapped up at the accusation, and she wanted to deny it. But, in an odd way, she knew that he was right. She _had_ cared that he didn't show up. "You're my arithmancy partner," she stammered out, though it didn't sound as _explanatory_ when she actually said the words than they did in her head. "I just thought...well, you might like my notes."

"Your notes?" he questioned, harshly, disbelief evident in his voice.

The brunette nodded. "Well, yes. I thought that since you missed class you might want to copy my notes," she said firmly, before digging in her bag for the notes that she had taken the other day. "You are my partner and it wouldn't do to have you falling behind."

"Always so worried about your marks," he sneered at her. "Can't even leave me alone to recover in peace...the only thing that matters to you is doing well in _arithmancy_. I am sure I'll be able to manage."

"I thought that...you cared about doing well in classes just as much as I," she answered, hating that he thought her heartless. "But, of course, your health is much more important. What's wrong with you anyway?"

Nott bristled at her question, his jaw clenched tight. "Don't pretend as if you care about my health, Granger. We've already established you are a shite liar," he said, his blue eyes firmly on the starchy white sheet in his lap. "Please, just leave."

"Fine, I'll go," she agreed, standing up, before leaning towards him to press her notes into his hands. "But, please just take my notes. You can return him in class this week," she insisted.

As she got closer to him, Nott physically recoiled away from her, as though she might burn him if she touched him. "I don't want your fucking notes, Granger. Please just get out of here," he practically begged, his body still angled away from her. He wouldn't even meet her eyes. "We _aren't_ friends, if you have forgotten."

"But, how will you catch up?" she questioned, nearly unable to believe that he wouldn't even borrow her notes, when most of their classmates would kill for a copy, or even a glimpse. He was just being so...rude and unreasonable!

"Draco's already lent me his," he explained, his teeth clenched as though he was in pain. "I'll be fine, okay?"

Reluctantly, Hermione knew that she would just have to take his word. She couldn't force him to take her notes. "Fine," she agreed, biting the inside of her cheek to stop from continue to arguing with him. She pulled her book bag back over her shoulder, shoving her notes inside. Turning tail, she left Nott alone in the infirmary, wondering just what she had been thinking in the first place going to visit him anyway. Nott was _right_. They weren't friends. So why had she gone to visit him in the first place? She felt drawn to him, like a moth to a flame.

There was more to her mysterious classmate than he was letting on, and all it did was inflame her curiosity. She could feel it practically eating away inside of her, wanting to just know what it was that Nott was dealing with, but knowing that it really wasn't any of her business.

So why couldn't she just leave it alone?

By the time that she returned to the empty Gryffindor common room, she still hadn't been able to shake the uneasy feeling that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so pleased that you guys are in for more Theomione! I will let you know the total chapter count once I finish the plotting. You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter seven and be on the lookout for chapter eight soon!

* * *

"This is a monumentally _stupid_ idea," Hermione whispered to her friend with a frown, wondering just how she'd gotten roped into it in the first place. "We aren't going to find him."

The air under the Invisibility Cloak was hot and made Hermione feel like she was choking, but leaving the protection that it afforded her was an impossibility. She couldn't be caught roaming the halls this late after curfew.

"You were the one that insisted on coming with me," Harry hissed back. "You could have stayed up in Gryffindor tower if you wanted."

Hermione bit her lower lip, knowing that what Harry said _was_ true, but also knowing that she couldn't just abandon her friend. Ron had been planning on accompanying Harry on his hairbrained plan. Then, he'd gone and gotten himself a detention for fighting with Cormac McLaggen in the hallways for some _unknown_ reason that he wouldn't share with _her_.

"Don't act like you didn't twist my arm Potter," Hermione hissed with a frown, knowing that her friend had guilted her more than a little bit for help. "I only came with because well...you'll need help when you find him. _If_ you find him."

Harry had been watching Malfoy on the map every night like a hawk, but without fail Malfoy would disappear for several hours, only to reappear later somewhere on the seventh floor. It was eating away at Harry, not knowing how Malfoy was evading the map's magic, and Hermione knew that he wasn't going to be able to let this go until he got to the bottom of it. Harry would stop at nothing other than to wander around on the seventh floor until Malfoy showed up.

"Admit it," Harry said, bumping shoulders with her. "You want to know how he does it, too."

Despite her thinking that Harry had grown rather obsessed, she could admit that she did want to know what was going on. She could feel the solution in the back of her mind, itching away, as if she should already know the answer. "The map never lies," Hermione said grimly. "Perhaps he's found a way around the anti-apparition wards. Or just apparating around the castle"

"Maybe," Harry hedged himself quickly. "But then, he'd show up somewhere else, wouldn't he?"

"Does he always reappear in the same _spot_ on the seventh floor?" Hermione asked, her brain churning with the effort of coming up with a solution.

Even though she couldn't see him in the dim light, she could tell from the silence that Harry was blushing. "I don't know," he admitted. "It's just, one minute he's gone and then the next minute he's there, and I've never really thought to remember if it seemed to be in the same location."

Hermione wanted to roll her eyes. Of course, Harry would notice practically _everything_ about Malfoy, except information that might help them discover what he was actually up to. He was utterly obsessed with Malfoy, but couldn't remember key facts. Not that she was one to talk. She'd become embarrassingly watchful over Nott herself, her eyes always finding his form if they were in the same room, whatever secret that he was hiding proving to be just as difficult to unravel as wherever Malfoy was going.

" _Yaaaooowl_!" An indignant whine came from underneath Harry's foot, shattering the crypt like silence on the floor. An indigent Mrs. Norris was looking quite furious to have had her tail stepped on by the dark haired boy.

"Shit!" Harry cursed, pulling away immediately. "I'm sorry, Hermione, I was looking at the map."

"Mrs. Norris?" Filch's voice echoed off of the stone walls, sounding as if he were still on his way up from the sixth floor. "Have you found students my lovely?"

Hermione could feel her heart beating wildly in her ribcage, fear at being caught out of bed by the caretaker. She could only imagine the hideous rumors that people would make about her and Harry being caught _together_ and knew that they had to get away at all costs. "Harry, run!" she whispered shouted, giving him a shove and slipping out from underneath the Cloak.

She was a prefect at least - she could pretend that she was on her rounds.

But, if she could help it, she'd rather not get caught by Filch, who was sure to go and rouse Professor McGonagall to tattle on her, and Hermione was sure that her mistake would _not_ be believed by her stern head of house.

Walking as quickly and as silently as she could, she was pleased that Mrs. Norris had followed Harry. She cast a disillusionment charm on herself as soon as she was able, and not a moment too soon, as Filch was coming around the corner. She pressed herself back against the stone wall and held her breath, praying that he didn't hear her racing pulse, which sounded deafening in her own ears.

To her delight, Filch toddled right past her, a spring in his step at the prospect of catching students out of bed. Hermione gave up a silent little prayer that Harry had the good luck and good sense to get off of the _fucking_ seventh floor, and then maybe Filch would catch Malfoy and _that_ would solve _that_.

Once he was gone, she crept along the edge of the hallway, hoping to make her own great escape. She knew she never should have let Harry go on with this plan, and she hoped that she could just get back to Gryffindor in a reasonable amount of time. She was _not_ expecting a hand to shoot out of one of the doors, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her inside.

Unable to stop herself, she started to make a noise of shock, only to have a large hand shoved over her mouth to stop the noise. "Shut the fuck up, Granger," the familiar voice whispered angrily. " _Salazar_. Do you want us to get caught?"

Looking up, she quickly realized that it was _not_ Harry who had pulled her to safety, and it certainly wasn't Malfoy either. She would recognize Nott's voice _anywhere_ at this point, even if it was barely louder than a whisper. "What are you-"

"Mrs. Norris is just outside the door, you idiot," he said, pulling her closer to him, so that her face was pressed up against his chest. There was barely any room in the broom cupboard he'd selected for his own hideout, so she had little choice but to try and relax. His heart wasn't beating wildly like hers was, instead just a calm steady thump. She breathed in deeply, noting that he smelled of cinnamon and cloves and citrus-

She stilled when he pressed his own face closer to the top of his head, his arms tightening around her almost imperceptibly. Merlin, was he _sniffing_ her? The thought of it made her belly do a queer kind of twisting, and she wondered why the hell he was doing something like that.

After another minute of silence, being in Nott's arms, he finally pulled away. "They're gone," he said with a frown. " _Finite_ ," he whispered, dropping her charm with ease.

Hermione's frown only deepened. "How did you know it was me with the charm on?" she asked with narrowed eyes, looking into his intense blue eyes. "And how did you know Mrs. Norris was outside the door?"

If she wasn't mistaken, Nott stiffened under her intense scrutiny, before scoffing. "How is it _my_ problem if you can't hear that bloody cat?" he asked, completely ignoring her other question. She narrowed her eyes at him in disbelief. Trying to put some separation between their bodies, he took a step back, but there was still barely an inch between them. "Besides, I think you should be groveling right now, thanking me for saving you from Filch," he snapped back.

In the weeks of working together, Theo had never given up his smart mouth, always willing to argue with her just for the sake of it. She didn't mind, though, always mesmerized by the look he'd get in his eyes when he did it. "Oh you'd like that would you? Me groveling at your feet?" she asked, hoping to press a nerve.

Nott sucked in a breath, obviously thrown off by her questioning. The subtext of her words clicked into place just a second later, and Hermione could feel herself blush hard. "I didn't-I didn't mean it like that," she stuttered, their odd banter slipping dangerously close to flirtation.

He ran his fingers through his hair, obviously trying to stop from saying whatever it was that was running through his mind at the moment. "What were you doing up here anyway?" he asked, eyes narrowing when he remembered the circumstances of their rendezvous.

Not sure what to say, Hermione knew that she couldn't tell Nott that she and Harry were stalking his friend. "Nothing," she said far too quickly, sounding utterly suspicious.

He stared down his nose at her, looking completely like he didn't believe her for even a moment. Then something changed in his eyes, his pupils widening and his look growing...hungry. Nott was leaning forward, dipping his head forward towards her, as if compelled by some unseen force. Was he going to kiss her, she wondered? Her heart stuttered at the thought, stomach fluttering. Her lips parted in shock, letting out a shaky breath.

Just as her eyes were beginning to slip closed, waiting to feel his lips on her own, Nott was gasping, his eyes wide, as if he'd been pulled from a trance. He jumped back, as though being so close might burn him.

Hermione _tried_ not to feel offended that he seemed so distraught about almost kissing her, but it was insulting to see the horrified look on his face when he realized what almost transpired. Worse still was the knowledge that she would have _let_ him kiss her if he'd wanted to. He cleared his throat before speaking. "Filch and Mrs. Norris are gone now," he said, sounding confident, his voice sounding graveley and barely restrained. "We should leave now while we have the chance."

She was nodding in agreement, figuring that she should get back to the Common Room before Harry came after her to see what exactly was holding her up. Or if he looked on the Marauders' Map. She wasn't sure that she would be able to come up with any kind of excuse to explain being shoved into a broom closet with Nott.

Even though she was still hurt by her behavior, she figured she did owe him at least a thanks for saving her a detention and some house points. "Thanks Nott," she said quietly. "I don't know why you helped me, but I do appreciate it."

He swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down, before he gave her a curt nod, unwilling to speak another word to her. Instead, he opened the door and slipped out of the cramped space, leaving Hermione alone with her thoughts.

She counted to thirty before leaving the closet herself, replacing her disillusionment charm for the lonely walk back to Gryffindor Tower. Hermione made it back without issue, her mind replaying the moment that Nott had almost kissed her again and again, his smell seeming to cling to her like a pleasant cocoon. He was so handsome with those dark blue eyes of his and lips that seemed entirely too kissable for a Slytherin. She was so distracted by it that she didn't start thinking about how peculiar it had been until she was safely tucked in her bed.

Nott hadn't said what he was doing on the seventh floor _either_. Had he been up to something with Malfoy? Some Death Eater project, perhaps? And, he hadn't said how he'd known it was her under the disillusionment charm when he pulled her into the cupboard, or how he'd been able to hear Mrs. Norris.

Hermione was only growing curiouser and curiouser. If he was trying to push her away, to get her to ignore him, than he should try not to seem so interesting.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so pleased that you guys are enjoying the rising tensions between the two of them. Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers - I am seriously so thankful for all of you! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter eight and be on the lookout for chapter nine soon!

* * *

Hermione hadn't been able to get her mind off of her near kiss with Theo Nott in a seventh floor broom cupboard no matter how hard that she tried. Worse was that Harry wouldn't let it go either. "Where did you go?" he demanded, nearly every time he got her away from Ron's big ears. "I saw Nott was skulking around on the floor, too. Did he hurt you?"

She was never able to come up with a satisfactory answer, telling him instead that she hadn't seen anyone else but Mrs. Norris. She was _very_ aware that her friend did not seem to believe her. Still, he'd always drop it as soon as Ron came around, perhaps sensing that there was some tension between her and the redhead.

Theo Nott had invaded her mind and honestly, it was a bit embarrassing just how affected she was by him. She already spent a lot of time thinking about him - worrying about him - but it was made so much worse once she knew how he _smelled_ , what his chest felt like when she was pressed up against him, the _way_ that he would look at her before he dipped his head to kiss, _Merlin,_ what the height difference felt like. It was all too much, wriggling into her brain until all of her dreams were of him.

He had been about to kiss her, she knew that know, drawn into her. And she had wanted him to kiss her, so badly, but he _hadn't_.

She thought that seeing the way that he snapped back, desperate to get away from her, was probably part of the reason that it hurt so badly. Of course, she knew that she wasn't the _prettiest_ girl in their year, but she certainly wasn't _bad_ looking either. And, she knew that she had trouble getting along with her classmates, but she didn't seem to have that same difficulty with Nott. They always had lively conversations when they met and he always made her laugh. She had thought that they were becoming friends.

Maybe she'd been mistaken. Maybe there was no room in his life for a _mudblood_ friend, let alone a _mudblood_ lover. Her cheeks flushed at the thought of it. Perhaps it had something to do with his odd behavior since the beginning of school. Had Nott taken the Dark Mark? If Draco Malfoy could have gotten it, why couldn't Nott? His father was just as involved as Lucius Malfoy; she remembered seeing him at the Department of Mysteries the year before. Had he suddenly remembered that he couldn't be with someone like her, not when he was involved with the Death Eaters, even if he really wanted to?

A part of her longed to confront him and ask why he hadn't kissed her, but she was too scared. Scared of his rejection and scared of him sneering at her like he always did when she got too close to him.

And, well, Nott certainly wasn't bringing it up either, though he didn't seem to be immune from the new tension that lingered between them when they met in the library. Sometimes, she would look up and he would be staring at her, with that familiar gleam in his eyes, that always seemed to make her heart stutter in response.

She tried to through her focus into other things, to try and keep her distracted from thinking about Nott at every opportunity. Hermione forced herself to talk more with Harry and Ron, feeling a bit embarrassed that she hadn't been spending more time with her best friends. She found Ron to be even more obsessed with Quidditch than usual, using most of his free time to practice for their first game. He was a bit over confident in his ability, if she was honest, and she was worried that it might all come crashing down. Guilt over the confundus charm she'd used made her belly twist uncomfortably.

But a bit of Quidditch couldn't compare to what Harry had been up to. While he wasn't stalking Malfoy all around the castle, he had picked up the disturbing habit of pouring over his potions text, looking for spells that he could use. Hermione was already quite suspicious of the textbook that Harry wouldn't let anyone else _hold_ even, but learning that he was trying spells from inside its pages was concerning.

"How can you just try to use a spell that you have no idea what it does?" she would prod at him, hoping to get him to see reason. "What if they do something horrible?"

"I don't see _you_ complaining about the _muffliato_ spell," Harry countered, arms crossed and looking crosser at her constant nagging.

Hermione could agree that it really _was_ quite a useful spell, and they had taken to using it more often than not. You could never be too careful about who was listening in to you, even when you were in the Gryffindor common room, she decided. "It is a very useful spell," she agreed with a frown. "But you have no idea what the other ones do. I am just worried about you, Harry."

Harry, like Ron, had taken to insinuating that she was just jealous of his marks in potions, that he was finally doing better than she was. _Cheating, more like_ , Hermione always wanted to snap back at them, but she kept the thought to herself. It was unnerving to have Harry besting her in a subject that he had genuinely struggled with while Snape was their Professor, and she knew that not all of it had to do with the man who seemed to have it out for Harry.

And, it wasn't as if she wanted Slughorn's endless praise in class either. Hearing the portly Professor go on and on about what a prodigy Harry was could make her cringe. It wasn't making him a friend to any of his classmates either. No, Hermione did just fine on her own merit, having received hints from Slughorn that an invitation to his little Slug Club meetings would be coming her way. It didn't seem like more than a way to extract favors from people in the future, but she would probably go anyway.

It was hard not to get caught up in watching Harry work away while he was making his potions, his green eyes pouring over the spiky text in the potions textbook, seeing the way he deviated from the instructions. While he was happy to just go along with whatever the _Half-Blood Prince_ said to do, Hermione's mind was whirling through everything she'd learned, trying to determine why his changes worked better than what they were told to do. Without fail, it seemed, the person who'd owned the book before was outwitting all of them, week after week. It pained her to say it, but whoever it was was obviously brilliant at potions.

But, the instructions were written that way for a _reason_ , and so Hermione was going to follow them, even if it meant that she no longer held the top spot in the class.

They had been talking about Everlasting Elixirs for the past two weeks and Hermione was excited to finally get into the brewing at last. Theory was fine, of course, but after last year's overhaul from the Ministry, she had even more appreciation for practical application of what they were learning.

Brewing required you to be precise and play close attention to detail - two things that Hermione excelled at. It was a way that she could show that she was a _better_ caliber of student than the others, though, with how small the class was at this point, they were all pretty much excellent brewers. Except for Ron.

"Hey, Hermione, could you grab me some asphodel?" Ron asked, trying to give her a dopey grin, perhaps thinking that it would entice her into doing his bidding. "Since, you know, you are always so good at picking the best asphodel. And, I mean, you are headed to the closet anyway."

She rolled her eyes, determined not to give into his laziness, especially not with that clumsy compliment he'd tried to give her. She knew he was only saying it to try and manipulate her into doing something for him. She was just ready to snap back and say something at him, when Nott sneered at Ron instead in that stereotypical Slytherin way. "Honestly, Weasley, if you managed to get into _this_ class, you'd think you'd be capable enough of doing your own work," he said, making Ron's face color. "You could always drop it if you find it too...strenuous."

Ron sputtered and floundered, but was unable to come up with a retort in the time it took Nott to stalk off in the direction of the ingredients closet. Hermione smirked, grateful to her arithmancy partner for sticking up for her, even if she was sure that he'd only done it to get under Ron's skin. "Well, he is _right_ , Ronald," Hermione said primly, before going to get her own ingredients.

Nott wouldn't meet her eye when she passed him, but she was able to whisper a thanks that he didn't acknowledge either. She quickly gathered everything that she needed, eager to get back to her station so she could start brewing. Even if everything went perfectly, it would likely take her the whole period to complete the potion.

When she returned to her station, Nott was cradling his hand against his chest, hissing in pain. Slughorn was bustling over, his hands on his belly. "Let's have a look then, Mister Nott," he said, his voice booming through the classroom. "Now, _that_ is a nasty burn."

Hermione could agree. From what she could see from her spot, his fingertips looked pink and irritated. His face was drawn in pain, looking unusually pale. She could only imagine how it would have felt, her own skin tingling from the sight of it.

"Next time, Mister Nott, try not to be so _careless_ with a hot cauldron," Slughorn said, patting the taller student on the shoulder. "Head off to the infirmary. I am sure that Madame Pomfrey will have you patched up in no time. Does she still have those scrumptious biscuits of hers? Maybe you'll get one of those as well."

Nott hauled his bag up over his shoulder, eager to get out of the dungeons as quickly as possible, as though relief couldn't come soon enough.

Hermione stared at his station when he left, his silver cauldron still in place over the burner. Her eyes narrowed in confusion when she noticed that the burner hadn't even been lit yet. _That_ was odd, she decided. Turning to glare at Ron, she wondered if he hadn't sent some kind of jinx at Nott's cauldron when he hadn't been looking. "Did you do something to Nott?" she demanded, wanting to know the truth.

"What? No!" Ron said, looking offended. "But if you ask _me_ , he deserves it for butting into a conversation he wasn't involved in."

"Really?" Hermione asked, thinking that it was rather rude of her friend to wish ill on Nott, but then again, she knew that Ron thought very little of Slytherins in general. He didn't have the same relationship that she had now, with Nott. _And it's a good thing he didn't_ , Hermione thought to herself. Merlin, she couldn't imagine if the boys knew. Shaking her head at how lurid she'd made it sound, she tried to remind herself that there was nothing going on between her and Nott.

Even if...she might like there to be.

Returning her focus back to the potion in front of her, she used her mortar and pestle to begin powdering the asphodel finely, hoping that the work would get Theo Nott out of her head. It didn't work.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! So, I might be a little bit behind on reviewer responses due to the holidays, but I promise I will get to them! Still, didn't want to leave you hanging on a chapter, though! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter nine and be on the lookout for chapter ten soon!

* * *

The school term was rapidly speeding by, the leaves changing colors and then falling off the trees by the last week of October. It was always a somber time of year, knowing that it marked the anniversary of Harry's parents death, but it was made all the worse this year by a few early flurries of snow, making it too cold to go for many jaunts around the grounds. Not that Hermione had been on many trips to Hagrid's hut with the boys, finding herself knee-deep in school work.

Despite her rigorous method of studying, all of her advanced classes assigned more work than they ever had, and she found herself struggling with the load of her strict revision schedule and finishing essays. One of the only classes that she felt she had a firm handle on was arithmancy, and that was owed in large part to her partner's efforts.

Since they had begun working together at the start of term, Theo had not brought up splitting up the work again. They had settled into a bit of routine, each one constantly checking the other's for rarely found mistakes. Hermione was excited to say that they had already begun to tease out some interesting trends - she hadn't been able to stop herself from teasing him about how much better the Slytherins seemed to perform in Professor Snape's classes, something that he couldn't explain away.

"Not that I'm doubting _your_ potions ability," she said with a grin, knowing that he did quite well in the class. She'd never noticed his brewing ability in the past, although Gryffindor was frequently paired together with Slytherin. Now, she could find herself distracted by the way he _stirred_ his potions, sure and confident with his long fingers holding onto the stirring rod. Really, it was _ridiculous_ how absorbed she could be by him. "But you have to admit there is a bias."

"At least Snape would have never allowed someone who was unprepared for the class into NEWT potions," he countered with a raised eyebrow, not bothering to hide his smirk from her. He knew that she shared his feelings about Ron bumbling his way through the subject. It wasn't that her friend was incapable of succeeding and potions, but he didn't want to or he couldn't put in the effort to do well.

She had begun to think of Theo as a friend, and she was hoping that he'd felt the same way. After all, he didn't need to help her hide from Mrs. Norris that night on the seventh floor and he didn't need to stick up for her in potions either. He seemed to relax and open up around her, almost as if he couldn't help it...like he was comforted by her presence.

So, it was because of this budding friendship that Hermione thought that she could be honest with him when he showed up for their Friday Arithmancy class about how he looked. She'd seen the steady decline in his appearance all week, and by that morning, he'd looked thin and pale, his jaw held in constant tension. He hadn't eaten breakfast, and if she was honest, she was surprised to see him in class at all.

As usual, he sat next to her, taking his usual notes. He jiggled his leg all through lecture, as though he was burning off some excess energy, which was odd, because based on the dark circles under his eyes, he looked like he needed to catch up on sleep.

She waited until the end of class to bring it up, not wanting to upset him by sticking her nose where she knew he would say it didn't belong. When Professor Vector dismissed the class, he was quick to begin repacking his bag. "Hey, wait a minute," she pressed gently, reaching out to touch his arm. "Theo, is everything alright with you? I don't mean to sound rude, but you look _exhausted_."

He pulled his arm out of her grasp, cradling it to his chest. "Granger-" he barked out.

Hermione was quick to cut him off. "I know, I know, you are going to remind me that it's none of my business and that I am a _shite_ liar and all that you said before," she said with a frown, wishing that he didn't think so little of her. She _wasn't_ lying and while she did want to know what exactly was wrong with him, that didn't mean she didn't care about him.

Theo took a step closer to her, so that she was having to crane her neck in order to see him. "It's not that...it's just," he trailed off, with a crooked smile, surprise evident on his face, making him look especially handsome. "I don't think I've ever heard you call me by my first name before."

Hermione blushed at her mistake and wondered when he had shifted from Nott to Theo in her mind. "I'm sorry, Nott," she said with a frown, hoping that she hadn't offended him. "I just, well...listen, you don't have to tell me what's wrong with you, of course, but, I'm not blind. I know something is going on and..." she wasn't sure what she wanted to say to him. She wasn't sure what she could even offer him. "I guess, I am here, if you want to talk about it."

He sighed deeply, his head dropping back, his eyes staring at the ceiling as if he was looking how to respond from there. When he finally looked at her again, his blue eyes were unreadable. "You are right, it's really none of your business," he said, his voice quiet and on edge. She wondered how the switch had been flipped so quickly. "Just, trust me, you _don't_ want to know."

She gaped at him, surprised that he had all but admitted that there really _was_ something wrong with him. She'd thought that he'd try to deflect or insist that he was okay, but...now her mind was unable to stop thinking over all of the possibilities. "I-alright then," she nodded with a frown, slinging her own bag over her arm. "I'll see you tonight," she said with a shrug, before turning to walk away.

"Hermione, wait!" he called after her, making her stop in her tracks.

She felt her heart skip a beat when he used her own first name, a pleasurable tingle running up her spine at how it sounded on his lips. She turned around to face him. "Yes?" she asked, unsure of what else he could have to say.

"I won't be able to meet you tonight in the library," he said with a frown on his face. "Something's come up, and I won't be able to make it."

Hermione swallowed thickly, not knowing how to respond to that. Internally, she was kicking herself for not being able to leave well enough alone when it came to Theo Nott. She'd probably scared him away with her questions, and he was just trying to keep a little distance between the two of them.

Movement in the corner of her eye made her realize that almost all of the rest of the class had left already, except for one. Draco Malfoy was staring at the pair of them, his eyes moving back and forth between the two of them, his pale face hard and unreadable. "Theo, are you ready to go? We've got charms."

She watched the Adam's apple in Theo's throat bob up and down, before he turned to look at his blond friend. They seemed to be having some kind of conversation with just their eyes. "In a minute Draco," Theo answered with a wave of his hand. "Granger and I are just sorting out responsibilities for our project for next week, since I've got...well, you know."

Malfoy gave him an imperceptible nod, but made no move to leave the room.

"Could you wait for me outside? I'll be just another minute," Theo requested, with an edge to his voice that seemed to leave no room for argument. It was so odd to see Malfoy bow to his request, as the other Slytherin always seemed to think that he was the King of Hogwarts, giving out orders to all his dutiful little followers. This year had changed him, though, making him more quiet, less pompous. But, Hermione knew that the friendship between Malfoy and Theo was one of begrudging equals.

Once Malfoy had vacated the room, Theo returned his attention back to her. "Like I was saying, I can't make it tonight. But if you still wanted to meet this weekend, I could probably make it on Sunday night," he said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "If you wanted to that is."

Hermione wet her bottom lip to stop from agreeing immediately, though she wanted to jump at the chance. "That would work for me, Nott," she said with a nod. "I'll probably be in the library most of the weekend anyway, revising for Transfiguration," she added. "You know where to find me."

"Yes," he agreed, nodding twice. "If...for whatever reason, I'm not able to make it, well, I suppose I should be able to get you a note."

She gave him a half smile and shook her head. "That's fine, just...come if you can," she said, knowing that she shouldn't hold out hope that he would be able to make it. "We can always catch up next week if we need to."

He looked as if he'd like to say more to her, but he thought better of it, turning and hurrying out of the now empty classroom after Malfoy. Hermione watched his retreating form and was surprised to feel worried about him. Just what was he planning, she wondered?

After he was long gone, Hermione began her own walk to her next class, knowing that she would have to worry if she was going to make it to Herbology on time. She walked as if she were on autopilot, her mind too busy trying to figure out the mystery that was Theo Nott.

Biting on her lower lip, she thought it over. Malfoy seemed to know whatever it was that Theo was doing - more than aware of it, really. It seemed to her that the biggest possibility was that he was mixed up with the Death Eaters, but that meant facing that Harry was probably right, too. If Theo was doing Death Eater business at Hogwarts, it made sense that Malfoy would be _also_. But, how could Professor Dumbledore just let two Death Eaters into the school? Surely, they would have some way of knowing what was going on right under their noses.

On second thought, Hermione knew all of the things that she, Harry and Ron had gotten into without any of the Professors knowing either, so maybe they didn't.

But, why did Theo look so terrible whenever he had to...she didn't know, meet with the Death Eaters? Do something for them? Was he a reluctant participant and the acts that he was being made to do sickened him? Running her fingers through her hair, she wondered if she wasn't just projecting what she would _like_ Theo to do. Of course, she liked him, so she wanted him to be horrified by whatever it was that the Death Eaters were up to.

 _Merlin_ , Harry was never going to let her live it down if he was right.

The air was cold outside when she made her way across the grass towards the greenhouses for Herbology. She decided that she wasn't going to tell Harry _anything_ until she had some sort of concrete proof, or else he was only going to be more of a stalker towards Malfoy. She wasn't sure how she was going to do it, but she supposed she was going to have to try and see if Theo wore a Dark Mark on his arm.

She didn't know what she would do if it turned out that he actually had one, but she hoped that her instincts were wrong.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad that you guys are enjoying this one because it has just been so much fun to write! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Now without further ado...

Please let me know what you thought of chapter ten and be on the lookout for chapter eleven soon!

* * *

Hermione's day had not gone any better once she got to Herbology. Harry and Ron for once were being irritatingly perceptive and tried to get her to tell them what was wrong, but she just couldn't say the words out loud that she thought Harry might be _right_ about Malfoy, especially not without proof. Her dinner was punctuated with the knowledge that Theo had not shown up, but Malfoy was there, head together with Zabini, whispering away.

 _That_ gave her pause, wondering what the hell Malfoy was still doing there if they were somehow working together. Surely, he'd be gone, too.

She hadn't been willing to stick around in the Common Room, instead retreating up to her room, hoping to stave off anymore questions from Harry and Ron. Lavender and Parvati were getting ready to go somewhere by the time that she flopped down on her bed. "Where are you two off to?" she asked, trying to be a good roommate for once. "Double date?"

"I wish," groaned Lavender, before holding up her star chart. "No, we are headed to the astronomy tower and _not_ for a snog, unfortunately."

"It's the full moon tonight and Professor Sinistra suggested that we see if there was any significance of the phase of the moon on our star charts," Parvati said with a frown, sounding not very enthused about it. "Talk about a terrible way to spend a Friday night."

Hermione made a little noise of agreement, thinking that she wouldn't particularly like to spend the evening freezing her arse off on the astronomy tower. "Well, good luck, I suppose," she bid her two roommates before they left the room.

It wasn't until several minutes after they left that the words full moon seemed to register to Hermione. The thought hit her like a ton of bricks, while she tried to conjure up reasons of _why_ it couldn't be true. Standing from her bed, she opened her planner and began flipping through the pages, counting back the days of moon phase. The last Friday in September had been a full moon, too, and there was one right before school started as well.

Holding the planner to her chest, Hermione stared at the hanging curtains of her bed, trying to decide how plausible that it was that Theo Nott was a _werewolf_. It would explain why he looked so much worse that Malfoy did, and only at particular times. Part of her had hoped that Theo was just more uncomfortable with the things that the Death Eaters did...that he was somehow _better_ than Malfoy.

But, if he _was_ a werewolf, that meant that it was unlikely he was a Death Eater. Even Hermione knew that Voldemort was unwilling to mark Fenrir Greyback, despite all of the terrible little things that he carried out for the dark wizard.

Shaking her head, Hermione tried to focus again. It would explain how he'd known that it was her in the corridor, because she knew from Remus that werewolves had slightly better than usual senses of smell and hearing. Had that been why he had _sniffed_ her in that broom cupboard, too, she wondered? She hadn't been able to shake how odd that moment had been to her since it had happened.

Of course, if the new scar he sported on his jaw had been given to him by a werewolf, it made sense why he hadn't healed it. It would be a cursed scar, then, resistant to any magical means of healing. Merlin, and for some reason, she'd just thought that he hadn't been able to get it healed himself, like he hadn't grown up as a wizard his whole life!

She began to pace back and forth across the room as all the pieces began to fall into place for her. _And_ , she was quick to remind herself, _he'd burnt his fingers on the silver cauldron in potions class_. Professor Slughorn had loudly announced that he was careless and burnt himself on a hot cauldron, but Hermione had noticed that the fire hadn't been lit yet. Was that all misdirection from the bumbling professor, or had he just assumed that Theo was inept?

Flopping down on her bed, Hermione whispered the words that seemed all too real for the first time. "Theo Nott is a werewolf," she said, with her head back on the pillow. That was the reason that he couldn't meet with her - because he would be transforming. Running her hand down her face, she felt horrified over how long it took her to figure everything out. She of _all_ people should have known the signs. After all, she was very close with Remus, still, having figured out about his own furry little secret in third year, and subsequently keeping his secret.

Biting her lower lip, she wondered if she should write to Remus to tell him about Theo, but she knew that she couldn't rush things. There was always the very small chance that she had miscalculated and was wrong, and that would be too mortifying to face if she had already _told_ people about what she suspected.

In her mind, a bit of a plan began to form, trying to determine the truth, once and for all. She had a little field trip to take in the morning, she decided. And then...and then she _hoped_ that Theo would actually show up in the library.

...

It hadn't been too difficult to get the boys to agree to sneak into Hogsmeade the day before with her, in retrospect. Hermione had begged Harry to get the cloak and his map so that they could go to the wizarding village, citing a dying need for some Honeyduke's chocolate. If they were suspicious of her reasoning for wanting to go, they were only too eager to get out of the castle themselves to question it too much.

She supposed that it wasn't a _dying_ need, but she did feel like she needed it on the off chance the Theo showed up. She had asked Remus once about his chocolate habit and he revealed that it actually had very mild euphoria producing properties for werewolves, and so it was always good to have on hand for after the full moon. And, outside of the full moon, it was just nice to have a sweet treat.

Now that she was in the library, hunkered down with her Transfiguration essay out in front of her, she placed the bar of chocolate on the desk, snapping off two pieces to eat. Honeyduke's chocolate was unusually delicious, but she forced herself to just have a couple of pieces, to make sure that she'd still have enough to share with Theo.

Hermione worked furiously for an hour, until she had a whole foot's worth of parchment completed. Sitting back in her chair, she read over what she had completed, looking for any errors or mistakes that she could find in what she'd written so far. Stretching her arms over her head when she was done, she whispered the tempus charm to see what time it was. Disappointed to realize how late it was, she knew that she had to face that Theo probably wasn't going to make it. Although, if he really was recovering from the full moon, she would be surprised if he'd find himself well enough to make it at all.

Just as she was about to begin packing her things up, Theo poked his head around the corner of the bookshelf. "Hey Granger," he whispered, so as not to attract Madam Pince's ire. "Still have time for a little arithmancy?"

She had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop the smile from spreading on her face. "Of course," she answered, gesturing to the open seat across from her. "Have a seat. I was just finishing my transfiguration essay."

Putting it in her bag, she pulled out the data for the arithmancy project, as well as all of their notes. Theo was inking a quill when she finally looked up at him again. Taking a moment, she let herself drink in his features. He looked... _better_. Worn out, but better than when he'd been in class on Friday. The dark circles under his blue eyes did not look so severe. His face was scruffy with the beginnings of a beard once again, and it made her smile.

His eyes met hers with surprise. Scratching at his jaw, he looked confused. "What is it? Something on my face?" he questioned.

Hermione shook her head, her cheeks feeling a bit hot when she realized that she'd been caught staring. "No, I just...your, uh, beard," she stammered, motioning on her own face. "It suits you."

"Oh," he scoffed. "Well, I won't be keeping it. I can only imagine what my father would think if he saw me with this." It was the first time that he'd mentioned his father since they had been working together and it left the atmosphere feeling a bit chilled. Hermione was surprised to hear that he would care so much if Theo decided not to shave a bit.

"Anyways, we should probably get to work," she said, turning her eyes to the parchment, trying to remember where they had left off. There was a bit of tension between the two of them now, and Hermione wondered if maybe it would be better if she had left the compliment to herself.

It didn't take long before they were both sitting in silence, quills scratching away as they worked through the calculations together. She waited a few moments before she reached towards the chocolate, pulling back the foil and taking another square before she popped it in her mouth. Glancing at Theo, she was surprised to see that he was staring at her, watching as she ate it.

"Sorry, terrible manners," she apologized, before shoving the chocolate bar towards him. "Have some - it's Honeyduke's."

He gave her a pained look, holding one hand in front of him. "I couldn't take your chocolate from you," he said, sounding like he would rather like to have some.

"Come on, don't make me eat it all on my own," she pleaded. When he didn't budge, Hermione rolled her eyes, hoping she could goad him into eating it. "I know how much you Slytherins detest muggleborns like me, Theo, but it's not like we have cooties."

"It's not- I know you don't have cooties, Hermione," he whispered, giving her a significant look like he was trying to tell her _more_ , but she couldn't quite figure it out.

"Good. I would expect you to be smarter than that," she said, tersely.

Holding back a smile, Theo reached out and took a row of chocolate from her, before biting off a square. Hermione watched with bated breath for some kind of reaction. While it wasn't hugely significant, she could tell that he at least liked the chocolate. It seemed like some of the tension he was carrying in his shoulders was lifted.

He finished the rest of the row as he resumed his calculations. When he realized it was gone, he looked up at her with surprise. "Thanks for that," he said, as if he couldn't really believe it. "It made me feel better than I have in days, if I'm honest."

"Have the rest," she said, holding out the bar for him to take. "No, really, I insist. I'm not going to eat anymore and if you don't take it, I'm just going to give it to Ron."

Theo seemed hesitant at first, but he eventually took the bar from her outstretched hand. "Thanks, Granger. You are alright," he said with another half-smile on his face.

Hermione nodded, returning her eyes to her work. While it wasn't a telltale sign that he was a werewolf - after all, who didn't like chocolate? - it was certainly a step in the right direction. Theo seemed as partial to the treat as Remus was. She needed to figure out how she was going to learn for sure if he was one, and further...what she was going to do with that knowledge.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad that you liked the reveal - I know a lot of you guessed it, but I hope it wasn't too obvious. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter eleven and be on the lookout for chapter twelve soon!

* * *

Hermione wiped furiously at her eyes, glad that no one was able to see her tear streaked face as she wandered through the hallways, looking for a good place to hide. She hadn't known what to do the minute that she laid eyes on Ron and Lavender snogging, but the impulse to get as far away from the Gryffindor Common Room as possible was impossible to ignore.

Ducking into an empty classroom, Hermione sat on one of the desks by the window, staring out into the inky darkness of the night. She wondered how it had all gone so wrong.

It had happened earlier in the week. She wasn't entirely sure _what_ brought it up, but Ginny had announced, quite untactfully, that Hermione had snogged Viktor Krum back in fourth year. That had sent Ron into a sputtering, angry mess. He'd been pressing her for more information on it, for confirmation that it wasn't true, but Hermione couldn't see any reason to lie to him. Besides, it wasn't really his business who she snogged. _Or did more with_ , Hermione thought with a stubborn blush.

Ron had remained furious with her all week, only made more acute when he grew more nervous for his first Quidditch match as keeper. Hermione _tried_ to be supportive of her friend, knowing that he was just going through a stressful period in his life, but she found his tantrums to be really quite grating.

She'd thought he'd gotten over his...his _childish_ jealousy when he'd been carried into the Common Room on the shoulders of the other players, his spirits high. He'd met her eyes and given her a dopey smile, and she was so excited to congratulate him, especially after Harry told her that he _hadn't_ given Ron the Felix Felicis that he'd won in Potions class. For once, she really felt herself getting swept up in the euphoria of a Quidditch win.

But, her hopes were immediately dashed when she watched Ron pull Lavender Brown into a full blown snog, the Common Room swelling to a volume so loud that she couldn't even hear herself think. The tears had prickled at her eyes when she realized that Ron was doing this to get _even_ with her, as if kissing Viktor had been something she'd done _to hurt him_. She knew that Ron was petty, but this was a new level for him.

Now that she was alone, she lazily tried conjuring her patronus, but wasn't able to manage more than a few wisps due to how sad she was feeling. She hadn't been able to stop crying, thinking of how bad it hurt to know that Ron wanted her to feel just as terrible as he must have. _Well, it obviously worked,_ she thought to herself with a frown. She wondered how she'd ever had a crush on the big lug.

The door to the classroom creaked open, and Hermione cursed herself for not having cast a charm on it, wondering if it was Harry who'd come after her. To her surprise, the tall form of Theo Nott slipped in, closing the door behind him. "Granger?" he asked, peering at her with concern. "Are you alright? I heard crying."

Hermione blinked at him owlishly, embarrassed at how loud she must have been crying if Theo had been able to hear it in the hallway. And here she'd thought she was being discrete. She run her hands over her wet cheeks, looking down and biting her lip. "Yes, I'm fine," she said. "Just a bit of...intra-house drama."

"What could you Gryffindors possibly have to fight about?" he asked, crossing the room until he stood in front of her. "You just won a great game of Quidditch."

She looked up into his blue eyes and gave a little shrug. "Ron snogged Lavender in front of the whole common room," she started.

Before she could relay the rest of her thoughts, Theo was practically snarling at her. "You're jealous?" he demanded, sounding incredulous and surprised. "What do you even see in Weasley? The whole school knows that you are leagues ahead of him."

Hermione blushed brightly, thinking that that rather sounded like a compliment. "It's not...I'm not jealous of Lavender," she stammered, unsure of how to get her thoughts on the matter out. "I'm sure that if it was a year ago, I'd be very jealous. It just always kind of seemed like Ron and I would end up together...but now..." she trailed off, not sure what to tell him. She couldn't just come out and say that she found Theo infinitely more attractive to her than her redheaded friend. She didn't think she could stand the rejection.

Theo took a step closer to her, until he was practically touching her bent knees. "And now?" he asked, his voice catching in his throat.

"Now, I guess...I just find him childish," Hermione revealed, unable to stop from staring at the Slytherin in front of her. "He got mad at me after he learned that I kissed Viktor Krum back in fourth year. I imagine that this is his way of getting even with me. _That's_ what hurts...that he just wanted to make me feel bad for doing something he didn't like."

"Why do you care what Weasley thinks of you at all?" Theo questioned, an edge of anger in his voice. "I mean, I know we aren't friends or anything, but it doesn't seem like Weasley is a very good friend to you. Or Potter for that matter."

Hermione bristled, not wanting him to say something bad about her friends, not even if she was made at them for the moment. "He _can_ be a good friend," Hermione insisted, unsure of why she was defending him. "But...he's got a bit of an inferiority complex, if I'm honest." She was surprised that she'd said that aloud, but there was something about Theo that made her want to open up to him. And, it wasn't as if it wasn't true about Ron. "I don't know if you can really say anything about friends, either, Theo. You and Malfoy are constantly bickering at the Slytherin table."

He tried to hide a smile that was threatening to form on his lips. "You sure do keep a keen eye on me, don't you, Hermione?" he asked, teasing. "Draco and I, just...well, sometimes he thinks he just knows _everything_. It's up to me to set him right. After all, it's not as if Crabbe or Goyle will do it."

"Merlin, do they ever even look up from their dinners long enough to know something is wrong?" she asked, making him laugh. She wanted to do that _again_. He stepped closer to her again, and then there was no space between them. Hermione's stomach twisted in excitement, a part of her wanting to open her legs for him, so that he could stand in the space she created. She could feel the heat of his body seeping through his jumper.

"You're clever, Granger," he said with a nod. His hands clenched at his side, as if he wanted to reach out and touch her, but was holding himself back.

"Hermione," she insisted, her tongue darting out to wet her lower lip. "And, you are wrong."

"What?" he asked, looking at her in confusion. "Are you trying to suggest that you aren't clever? I thought you were meant to be the brightest witch of our age, or some _shite_ like that."

She shook her head back and forth. "No, I mean...you said that we weren't friends or anything," she explained. "I mean...I understand if you don't want to _advertise_ it...I probably won't go telling Harry and Ron either, but...I'd like to think that you and I are friends at this point, Theo."

His eyes dropped to her lips, just like they had in the broom closet and Hermione wondered if he was going to kiss her this time. Merlin, she wanted him to do it more than ever, but she wondered if he would have enough courage to bridge the gap. Just as she was going to reach her hands out to grab the soft-looking material of Theo's jumper, the door to the room was bursting open again. A giggling Lavender was slipping in, dragging a stumbling Ron in after her.

Theo cleared his throat, stepping back from Hermione when Ron's eyes finally settled on the unexpected pair. He glared at Hermione when he began to understand the scene that he was seeing in front of him. "Oi, what the bloody hell is going on in here?" he demanded, shaking off Lavender's hands from where they were holding onto his arm.

Hermione glared back at Ron, hating that he'd ruined the moment between her and Nott, just when she thought that she might actually get a kiss out of him. Hopping off of the desk she'd been perched on, she turned to look at her friend. "It's none of your business, Ron," she said quietly, wishing that the two intruders would just leave.

"Come on Ron," Lavender pleaded, tugging at his sleeve. "It looks like the room is already occupied," she said in a sing-song kind of voice, recognizing the tension and trying to de-escalate the situation.

Ron did not seem to be convinced by Lavender's words, instead shaking his hand out of her grasp once again. "No, I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on, 'Mione," he said, his voice dropping an octave while he stared at her, oscillating between anger and hurt. Hermione barely was able to stop herself from snapping at him, wanting to remind him that he had _no right_ to demand such information from her. What did he even care if she was spending time with Theo in the first place?

Before she could think of something to say, Theo was stepping in front of her, putting himself between her and Ron. "I think Granger made it very clear that it was none of your business, Weasley," he said, his voice graveley and firm, leaving no room for argument.

Ron looked like he wanted to say something, but whatever he saw in Theo's face made him second guess himself. Instead, he scoffed, shaking his head at her. "Fine. Do whatever you want, 'Mione," he said with pure venom in his voice.

She couldn't stop herself from peeking around Theo's back to glare back at him. "Just like you do, Ron," she retorted, hating that she was expected to fulfill a different set of rules from him and Harry.

Letting Lavender pull him from the room, Ron slammed the door shut, eager to show his displeasure with the situation. Once she was left alone again with Theo, she let her head drop, sighing, suddenly feeling very tired. "Great, I'm never going to hear the end of this," she said with a groan. "I don't know why he is acting that way."

"Really?" Theo asked in disbelief. "It's clear that...he imagines he fancies you."

Hermione let the silence stretch between them as she tried to decide how best to respond. "Well, I don't fancy him back...I fancy someone else," she said, biting at her lower lip. "Just because we are friends doesn't mean he's entitled to me. And if he really was interested, he could show it in a better way than by snogging another witch."

Theo was looking at her with his head cocked to one side, as though he were trying to figure her out. She wondered if he didn't believe her about her feelings towards Ron. It seemed as if everyone just expected her to end up with him. Was he speculating as to who else she could like?

Shaking her head, she didn't think she could spend another minute in his presence for fear that she would wrap her arms around his neck and try to kiss him. "Thanks for cheering me up," she said when she walked past him. "But, I better get back and try to do a bit of damage control. See you in class."

"Goodnight, Hermione," he called after her retreating form, none the wiser of the shiver that her name on his lips sent racing up her spine.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I know we all wish we could have a time turner to go back and stop Ron from ever interfering. Hopefully you will enjoy this chapter, too. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions, for now. Obviously, the site is in flux and I will let you know if I eventually move to some other home.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twelve and be on the lookout for chapter thirteen soon!

* * *

Hermione had been watching the month of November creep by with unfailing certainty, until it was the week of the full moon once again. She'd paid attention to how Theo seemed to be feeling as the full moon crept closer and closer, watching as he seemed to grow worse and worse as it neared. He'd been in class when the Friday before for arithmancy, but Hermione was surprised when he didn't cancel their standing meeting in the library that night. She wondered if he was just trying not to raise any suspicions.

"You don't look well, Theo," she'd said, hoping her tone remained casual and not accusatory, keeping her eyes locked on her paper. "Trouble sleeping? Perhaps you could speak to Madame Pomfrey about it."

From her peripheral vision, she could see that he stiffened under her line of questioning, his body still. He cleared his throat, drawing her attention up from her notes. His blue eyes always seemed to darken when he looked at her, reminding her of the predator she was sure that he was. "I'll have to speak to her, then," he said, pushing his hair out of his face.

Part of Hermione wanted to just tell him right then and there that she _knew_ his secret, but she was also cognizant that it was likely to spook him. Werewolves were not treated well by wizarding society, so she was sure he would panic if it seemed like his affliction got out. She doubted that she'd even be able to tell him that it didn't matter to her - he was still Theo, afterall.

"Listen, I don't mean it in a rude way," she said, reaching across the table to give his hand a squeeze. He pulled his hand back from her grasp, making Hermione frown. "I just mean...I'm your friend. You could tell me if there was something bothering you. If you wanted to talk, I mean."

"We might be...closer than we were before," he conceded with a sneer. "But I mean it respectfully when I saw that we are _not_ friends, Granger. I have nothing to _confess_ to you, okay?"

Hermione swallowed thickly, but nodded, letting him know that she understood. She could feel the beginnings of tears prickle in the back of her eyes, hating how hot and cold he could be with her. It had seemed like they'd passed some point in their relationship when he'd cheered her up after Ron had kissed Lavender. But, as they grew closer to the full moon, he seemed intent to keep her as far as possible.

She'd left the library wanting to figure out the truth more than ever before.

Deciding that the best way to do that was to try and figure out what he did the night of the full moon, Hermione approached Harry on Sunday evening after dinner. It wasn't hard to get him alone, seeing as Ron still wasn't speaking to her. The redhead was spending as much of his time as possible snogging Lavender in public, which turned Harry's stomach as much as it did hers.

"Harry, could I borrow the map and your cloak tonight?" she whispered while they were walking back towards the Common Room, knowing that the portraits had ears.

He was silent for a few beats while he considered it. "What do you need it for?" he asked, treating her request with suspicion.

Hermione bit her lower lip, wondering if she should share her instincts with her oldest friend, before deciding that there was still too much of a risk that she was wrong to reveal them. "I can't...I can't tell you," she said. "Not yet anyway. Just...it's really important. Please Harry?"

Harry pulled her into a little alcove so he could look at her while he was speaking. "Does this have something to do with Nott?" he asked, his eyes searching her face. "Ron told me that Nott had you trapped alone in an empty classroom and-"

She cut him off before he could say anything else. "Ron is full of shit, Harry," she said, rolling her eyes. Leave it to Ron to embellish the story. "Nott wasn't holding me against my will, but we were in the classroom together when Ron and Lavender barged in."

"But, when we went looking for Malfoy, I saw you and him in that-"

"Harry, stop worrying about Nott," she instructed, thinking that Harry was really being too perceptive for his own good. He'd been so obsessed with Malfoy all term, she was surprised that he'd noticed her run-ins with Theo to begin with.

"You sit with him in the library sometimes, too," Harry said, not able to help himself. "Is there something going on between the two of you? You could tell me."

A part of her wanted to tell Harry about her growing crush on Nott, but she couldn't trust him not to go back and tell Ron. "Nott and I are partners for an arithmancy project, Harry. That's all," she said, firmly. "We meet in the library because we are furiously running calculations, not because we are having some kind of torrid love affair like you seem to think," she said, a bright blush on her cheeks. "And he's not threatening me, like Ron seems to think either."

Harry stared at her for a long moment, like he was trying to determine if she was telling the truth or not. Luckily, she knew that he was not suited to mind magic after his lessons with Snape the year before proved fruitless. "Okay," he said, finally with a nod. "If you say so."

"I _do_ say so," Hermione reinforced. "Now, please tell me I can borrow the map and the cloak? It's just for tonight. I've never even asked before."

He agreed readily enough, though the wary look on his face let Hermione know that they weren't done with the conversation. She waited impatiently for him to retrieve them from his trunk. When he returned, Hermione wrapped him in a tight hug, catching him off guard. "You are a _good_ friend, Harry Potter," she said honestly. "And I know you are trying to look out for me. I will tell you what this is all about...eventually. I just... _can't_. Not yet."

Holding his arms out in front of him, Harry gave her a half-smile. "No need for further explanation, Hermione," he responded. "You must have a good reason for it."

She gave him a weak smile, wondering if he would still think that it was a good enough reason when she eventually had to tell him the truth. Knowing that she couldn't put it off any longer, Hermione ducked out of the Common Room before finding an empty corridor to put on the Cloak. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," she whispered, tapping her wand on the map.

The map came alive, bunches of little dots moving around the castle. It was very nearly curfew, so there were not many students out in the corridor. She found herself fairly easily, orienting where she was in the castle. Ron and Lavender were easily found in an empty classroom; the petty part of her sort of wanted to track them down and take house points, but she knew she would find no friends in Gryffindor if she did that.

Scouring the dungeons, she looked for any sign of Theo, but was unable to locate the dot that represented him. Next, she tried the vast library, but was unable to find him there either. Deciding to be methodical about it, she began scanning each of the floors, one after the other, looking for any sign of him. She was beginning to give up hope, wondering if he'd been relegated to the Shrieking Shack just like Remus had been all those years ago when she finally checked the seventh floor.

Gasping when she found his name, she realized that he was in one of the abandoned wings that used to hold some more quarters for professors. Gathering herself up, Hermione made her way towards the seventh floor, her heart thudding in her chest with each step that brought her closer to getting to the bottom of Theo Nott's mysterious behavior.

She made her way down the winding corridor, one that she hadn't ever explored before, excitement growing as it became narrower after each turn. Finally, she stood outside the door that Theo was behind. It was nondescript and if she had to guess had once belonged to a professor. Holding her breath, she listened for any sign of noise, but heard only the pounding of her blood through her veins.

Lifting her hand, Hermione tried the handle. Masking a yelp of pain, she jumped back when she was stung before she'd even laid hands on it. Perhaps she was being a little bit rash trying to open the door if what she suspected was correct. It wouldn't do to just go barging in if Nott was a werewolf. She had no idea what his demeanor would be this close to moonrise, and it could be dangerous.

Raising her wand, Hermione began to tease at the wards that had been layered over the door. They were quite robust, ensuring that no one was going to break them down in a night. Briefly, Hermione wondered why they hadn't tried something similar when they had been housing Fluffy at the school. Surely, that would have been an excellent way for them to protect the Philosopher's Stone.

Even if she couldn't get inside the room, Hermione knew now that there was no denying it - Theo was a werewolf. He must be taking the wolfsbane potion if he was able to remain in the school, which meant that the staff must be aware. Surely, Madame Pomfrey would know, since she took care of him after his transformations.

Knowing that she was doing no good sitting here on the ground staring at an unmovable door, she threw the cloak back on before walking back towards Gryffindor tower. Watching the map for any sign of Filch, she crept along the hallways hoping to avoid detection. In the end, it seemed that it was a good thing that she was, because if she hadn't kept her eyes on the map in front of her, she would have ran straight into Draco Malfoy, his dot suddenly appearing around the corner, seemingly out of nowhere. _Just like Harry had said_.

Narrowing her eyes, Hermione hurried around the corner to see if she could figure out where Malfoy had been. She watched his retreating back striding down the dark hallway, until she went to go investigate. When she saw the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy, she could have smacked herself. _Merlin_ , how stupid could she have been to not remember that the Room of Requirement didn't show up on the map?

Buoyed by everything she'd learned that night, she had to stop herself from running back to the Common Room. Once she was safely inside, she kept the cloak on, creeping up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. Pulling back the sheets around Harry's bed, she sat on the edge before covering his mouth with her hand, hoping that he wouldn't alert anyone to her presence. _That_ would be difficult to explain.

Harry's eyes shot open, wild and alert. "Shh, Harry, it's just me," she whispered, pulling the cloak off of her head and handing him his glasses.

He blinked at her, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. "What in the bloody hell are you doing sneaking around up here like that?" he demanded, though he kept his voice in a whisper. "You could have just returned the map and cloak to me tomorrow morning."

It was nearly impossible to hide her grin from him, knowing just how pleased Harry would be when she told him the reason that she was there. "It couldn't wait," she answered. "I know where Malfoy has been disappearing off to."


	13. Chapter 13

The fall term raced by with a pace that Hermione couldn't remember since starting at Hogwarts. It seemed that she was barely able to blink before another week was out, and there were more essays to finish, assignments to turn in, and exams to study for. The overwhelming amount of work that she had to do almost made it easier for her to shake off the hurt of Ron not speaking to her.

She knew that Harry was exhausted, having to play peacekeeper between his two friends, but Hermione wasn't going to budge when it came to Ron. She had done absolutely nothing wrong by speaking to Theo. And, she was not mandated to react in a certain way to Ron's disgusting relationship with Lavender. The redhead was quick to tell anyone who would listen about how _jealous_ Hermione was of their relationship, but he couldn't be further from the truth. She just found their public acts of affection repulsive.

And, she had her eye on another student, one who was probably blissfully unaware of how much she fancied him because he was too busy being a werewolf.

Ron made it clear that he was unhappy with the way that Harry was handling himself, too. He was very put out when he learned that Hermione and Harry had gone to Professor Slughorn's Christmas party together. That had been an embarrassing situation to begin with, seeing as Slughorn seemed to think that she and Harry were a _couple_ now, even though they were both firm about saying they were just friends. It hadn't stopped the rumor mill from working overtime to couple the two of them together.

Giving Harry an ultimatum, Ron had tried to get the boy-who-lived to take sides. But, after Hermione helped Harry figure out Malfoy's disappearing trick, he hadn't been able to cut contact with her like Ron wanted. "You know I wouldn't do that anyway," Harry had said one afternoon when the were combing through the disorderly room that was produced when they entered the Room of Requirement, fingers trying to tame his perpetually unruly hair. "I mean, even if you weren't helping me. You're my friend, too, Hermione."

As much as she wanted to believe him, she had several fights worth of evidence telling her that Harry and Ron were just closer than she could ever hope to be with either of them. "Of course Harry," Hermione said, biting at her lower lip while she stepped over a pile of broken lampshades. "But, I think that you should go to the Burrow with Ron and Ginny over the break. Don't give him more fuel for the fire."

Harry gave her a sad look. "You know that he's going to regret this massively when he and _Lav-Lav_ break up, right?" he asked. "He's just...not sure how to express himself."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I know he will, and I will forgive him just like I always do," she responded, wondering how best to say what she needed to. "But Harry, Ron is not entitled to having me fancy him. He and I...we just wouldn't ever work out."

He seemed dumbfounded by her statement, trying to find the words to say. Hermione was disappointed to see that he seemed to believe all of the lies that Ron had been telling the rest of their house about her being jealous. "It just always seemed like...like you might fancy him," he said eventually.

She gave him a sad smile and shook her head. "Maybe in the past, but the way he's behaved this year...has _fully_ extinguished any feelings that might have grown," she explained as honestly as she could. "And, I might fancy someone else."

"Does this have something to do with Nott?" he asked, his green eyes boring into hers.

Hermione turned away, unable to tell him the truth. "Harry, leave it with Nott, okay?" she begged, unable to put her very real feelings into words.

Harry dropped the subject, returning to his perusal of the Room of Requirement in silence. They didn't speak anymore about Nott, and before Hermione knew it, Harry and Ron were taking the Hogwarts Express back to enjoy their winter holidays together. She just hoped that Harry wouldn't bring up Nott to Ron.

She hadn't spent many holidays at Hogwarts, typically returning home to her own parents for the two weeks, but this year her parents had a dental conference to attend. The castle was unusually still, with only a handful of students remaining behind, perhaps due to the growing tensions in the wizarding world. Still, she didn't mind the solitude, enjoying spending blustery days in the library or staying up all night in front of the big fireplace in the Common Room.

One day early into the break, Hermione decided to take a quick walk around the grounds, eager to enjoy the fresh blanket of white snow that had fallen overnight. Bundling up, she braved the cold temperatures, knowing that she'd be able to warm up with a hot chocolate when she went back inside. Hagrid's hut was empty when she got there, so Hermione walked around aimlessly, until she finally decided that it was time to go inside, the tip of her nose having grown really quite cold.

When she got back on the path back up to the castle, she was surprised to see none other than Theo Nott walking a few paces ahead of him. Jogging to catch up to him, she greeted him warmly. "Hey Theo," she said, an open grin on her face. "I didn't know that you were staying here over the holidays."

He nodded, his jaw set tightly. "Yes, well, it's the first time that I've stayed behind," he answered tersely.

"What made you decide to stay?" she asked. "My parents are at a conference, and I did _not_ receive an invitation to spend Christmas with the Weasleys these year. Things with me and Ronald are still a little frosty."

He snorted at her apt statement. It was no secret to anyone in the castle that the two Gryffindors were not speaking to one another. "Well, I didn't exactly _decide_ not to go home," he said with a hint of a growl in his voice. "My father is in Azkaban as I am sure you know. The Ministry has decided that, even though I became of age in November, I cannot be left to my own _devices_ , not even for a week."

Hermione's smile fell from her face at how bitter he sounded. Of course she'd known that his father had been sent to Azkaban, seeing as he'd been one of the Death Eaters caught in the Department of Mysteries...where she had been fighting. She wondered if he resented her in any way for what happened to his father. It would explain how he sometimes seemed keen to have nothing to do with it. "I'm sorry," she apologized, the words jumping out of her mouth before she could second guess them.

Theo must have known what it was that she was thinking, because he sighed, turning his head to look at her. "Don't be," he said firmly. "It wasn't your fault...just his own stupid decisions."

She was surprised to hear that he actually blamed his father for the outcome. Even if that was truly how he felt, she never would have expected him to voice it out loud, considering the current climate. "But don't you have any other family you could have gone to see over the holidays?" she asked.

"No, it's just my father and I at home usually," he answered, his frown deepening. "I'm sure you've heard the rumors about my mother's death."

Hermione bit her lower lip, but nodded. Who hadn't heard the whispers about how Theo Nott's father had killed his mother in front of him when he was just a little boy, strangling the life right out of her? The rumors had spread like wildfire once it became clear that he was one of the people who could see thestrals during Care of Magical Creatures.

"They aren't true," he said firmly. "She got dragon pox when I was little and died."

She wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that. It seemed awful that people should make up rumors about your father and mother, even if his father was a terrible person. She doubted that anyone really thought how Theo would feel about being put in that kind of situation.

"It's alright, though," Theo said, after a few beats of silence had passed. "It would have been lonely at home, anyway. I just wish the Ministry would stay the fuck out of my life."

Hermione had to stop herself from asking him if they knew about his...furry little problem. He was supposed to register as a werewolf if he was one, but she knew that many people avoided the registry like the plague because of the effect that it could have on their lives. But, he might not have been able to avoid it if the Ministry was involved after his father was taken to Azkaban.

She shivered, feeling the cold's icy fingers sneaking inside of her jacket. "I'm freezing," she announced, pressing mitten covered hands against her rosy pink cheeks. "I was just going to head inside for some hot chocolate. Want to join me?"

Theo looked like he was going to agree, his eyes widening in surprise at her invitation. Then, some kind of...realization came over his face and she was shaking his head no. "I don't think so, Granger," he said, his words punctuated by puffs of hot breath in the icy air. "I think we should put some distance between us now that our project is over."

They had concluded their arithmancy project earlier in the week. While they hadn't received a mark for it yet, Professor Vector seemed impressed. "I didn't expect you two to get through this volume of data," she said, sounding surprised. "I'm glad that the two of you worked so well together."

"But, I thought that we were friends," Hermione countered, trying not to let him know just how upset she really felt about it. "Just because we aren't being forced to work on a project together anymore doesn't mean that we have to stop spending time together. I like having a...a study buddy in the library."

He shook his head back and forth. "I don't think that you should be spending time with someone like me," he said firmly, as though his mind couldn't be changed. "It will just cause unnecessary trouble for you. You've seen how much damage I've already done to your friendship with Weasley."

Hermione wanted to argue with him that Ron's friendship didn't mean anymore to her than his did, but she couldn't find the words to say it. She couldn't focus over the crushed feeling in her heart that he obviously cared so little about what _she_ wanted. Had his friendliness solely been due to wanting to get a good mark in arithmancy? Was it little more than an act the whole time? "Oh, okay," she said, feeling the telltale prickles in the back of her eyes as she tried not to cry.

Theo didn't say anything else, too cowardly to do so. He turned and fled the conversation as quickly as possible, the snow crunching under his feet. By the time that she looked up, his long legs had carried him nearly all the way to the castle. She wasn't sure how long she had stood there, feeling sorry for herself, but her toes were beginning to go a bit numb in her boots by the time she got the mental strength to return to the castle, intent on heading to the kitchens to get some hot chocolate to cheer her up.

Maybe if she was lucky, the house elves would bring her dinner to Gryffindor Tower, too, because she didn't know if she could face Theo again in the Great Hall after the callous way he'd treated her.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this chapter in particular. I really hope that you enjoy it. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter fourteen and be on the lookout for chapter fifteen soon!

* * *

After her odd interaction with Theo out on the school grounds, Hermione wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the holiday break feeling rather sorry about herself in her room. She'd replayed the conversation over and over again in her head, wondering just where it had gone wrong. One minute he was opening up to her, and the next, he was giving her the cold shoulder. It was the same way that he'd behaved all year.

The more that she thought about it, though, the more that she came to realize he was trying to push her away. He hadn't said that he _didn't_ want to be friends with her, but rather that he would be _trouble_ for her. And, he'd only said it once they began talking about the Ministry.

It didn't take her long, then, to connect the dots and realize that he was just concerned about him being a werewolf. Was he afraid that she would reject him? Be repulsed by him? She supposed that he would have no idea about her relationship with Remus Lupin, that she thought he was a dear friend, and that she knew much more about lycanthropy than the average witch. He would have no idea that she wasn't...prejudiced against werewolves. Knowing that he must be ashamed of his being a werewolf and that she would turn him away if she knew began to gnaw at her the longer she thought about it.

She _needed_ to talk to him, and fortunately, she knew the perfect time to do it. A quick glance at her calendar confirmed to her that the next full moon fell on Christmas Eve. Hermione already knew the room that he was being held in, but she also figured that he would be taking wolfsbane if the school had allowed him to stay there. He had been in the room long before moonrise, trapped inside by warding. It was a risky plan, but she just needed to get inside the room before he got there, and then he would be a captive audience. She could explain everything and then he would have to see that they could remain friends. She wasn't afraid of him.

Lugging a copy of _Hogwarts, A History_ with her, she left for the room he'd be put in after lunch, ready to settle in for a few hours of waiting. She hadn't known what to expect, but it was actually quite homey, albeit cramped. The room was dominated by a small bed pressed against one wall next to the only window. There was a desk and a small bookshelf with a few titles. She let her fingers trail along the spines of the books, but found most of them terribly dusty - they'd probably been left behind by the room's previous occupant. There was no evidence of the Slytherin who was the room's only resident now.

While Hermione knew that it was probably never _nice_ for Theo to be trapped in this room, he would at least be able to get a little homework or reading done before the pull of the full moon transformed him every month. She wondered if he passed the moon curled up on the bed or perhaps in front of the fireplace, staring up at the moon's silvery light. Or, did he pace the room like the caged animal he was?

A wave of her wand had a cheery little fire crackling away in the hearth, chasing away some of the chill that seemed to creep in. Knowing that she had a lot of time before Theo would get there, Hermione settled onto the bed, her book balanced on her lap. Staring out the window, she watched as a heavy snow fell on the other side of the glass. Sighing, she opened the book reading over the familiar words that she must have nearly memorized by now.

Hermione must have fallen asleep because the sun had already slipped over the edge of the horizon when she was startled by voices just outside of the room. "Alright, Mister Nott, in you go," Professor Slughorn's normally jovial voice commanded, opening the door and pressing Theo inside.

Hermione watched his back, holding her breath to escape notice, but she knew that Theo was aware of her presence even before he came into the room. His back was ramrod straight, and she could tell how frantic he was.

"But Professor, wait-" Theo was saying frantically, trying to get the Professor's attention.

"Don't _worry_ , Mister Nott," Slughorn said patronizingly, not even bothering to figure out what Theo's fears were in his hurry to get out of the situation as quickly as possible. "The wards will drop in the morning as usual," Slughorn reminded his student, before shutting the door in his face, not caring what would go in the room once he left.

Theo began pounding on the door with his fists, unwilling to give up so easily. "But Professor, there is someone else in here," he called frantically. However, Professor Slughorn was unable to hear and the silencing wards were placed, to keep any howling trapped within the room.

His shoulders dropped when he realized that the action was futile. Then, he spun around on his heel, his face looking thunderous and irate when he faced her. "What are you _fucking_ doing here, Granger?" he demanded.

"It's okay, Theo," Hermione said, standing up from her little nest. She was sure that he would see that he was overreacting if she could just get a handle on the conversation. She had never been so confident in her own convictions.

"No, it's not _okay_ ," he shouted at her. "You need to leave, right now, Granger." It looked as if he had a tenuous grasp on his anger, his fists opening and closing at his sides. He was every bit the caged animal that was inside of him. "Salazar, Granger, how is it possible that you could be so _stupid_?"

"I am _not_ stupid," Hermione said, feeling rather indigent about the whole situation. She knew it must have come as a shock to him that she was there, but if he just calmed down for a minute he would be able to see that they could just talk it out.

"Yes, you are," he argued back, turning away from her, as if he couldn't lay eyes on her for a single moment longer. Then, a look of pure determination came over his face. He raised his wand and began casting spells on the wooden door.

"What are you doing?" Hermione questioned, sounding worried over the ferocity he was using to attack the only thing that was keeping them in. She pressed a hand to his shoulder, hoping to calm him down. "Theo, just stop for a minute."

"What am I doing?" he sneered at her. "I am trying to get you out. You need to leave. You can't be here." He was unshaken by her pleas.

Hermione could feel her heart thudding away in her chest. "It won't work," Hermione said, feeling resigned. "Even if the both of us wanted to work together, we wouldn't be able to dismantle all of the wards. They are layered into the school's walls," she explained. "I know...I checked them last month."

He spun around, taking a step towards her, nostrils flared and his jaw tense. "Why the hell would you try to take them down, _last month_?" he questioned her sharply, perhaps still not putting two and two together about her knowing about his lycanthropy. "You have no idea what you've done, Granger. You need to get out now."

"I don't need to get out," she answered, jutting her jaw up into the air. "If you would just _calm down_ and speak to me for a few minutes, you would see that nothing is wrong."

"Calm do-calm down? How can I calm down when you don't even realize the situation you've gotten yourself into? This isn't something that you can smart yourself out of. This isn't some little adventure with Potter and Weasley," he said, his deep blue eyes never leaving her face, his pupils dilated. Even though the moonrise had not yet begun, she could already see hints of the predator that bubbled under the surface.

Hermione knew that he still wasn't _listening_ to her. Pressing her hands against his chest, she tried to gather his focus. "Because _I know_ ," she hissed, defiantly. "I know that...I know that, you are a werewolf."

A beat of silence passed between the two of them, and she was positive with his sensitive hearing he'd be able to hear her heart fluttering away, her pulse racing.

"You think you just have everything figured out, don't you?" he accused, his voice dropping an octave. The sound of it sent a thrill racing up and down her spine.

"I also know that you've been trying to push me away," she continued with her tirade, unwilling to stop now, not when she had his undivided attention. "I can't begin to imagine...how hard it is to live with lycanthropy, but I don't think that means that I can't be your friend. It's...it's nothing to be ashamed of, and I won't treat you any different just because you are a werewolf," she told him earnestly, willing him to believe the truth in her words.

"You have no idea the kind of danger that you've just walked into," he growled, still not letting go of any of his...concern. Hermione was dismayed to learn that he still thought he was dangerous to her.

I also know that there is no way that Dumbledore would let you come back into the school if you weren't taking the wolfsbane potion. The wolfsbane potion means you will keep your mind during the transformation," Hermione said slowly, carefully. Holding eye contact with him, she wouldn't back down, knowing that this was just another tactic to keep her at arm's length."I'm not afraid. You won't hurt me."

A sardonic smile came over his face. Theo shook his head back and forth. "You are...so _frustrating_ , Hermione," he groaned, before rounding back on her. He took another step forward, a new sort of hunger reflected in his eyes. "I knew that you'd probably figure out about my lycanthropy as soon as we were partnered together. You are just...so observant, and it was only a matter of time before you matched the pattern of my absences to the phases of the moon," he explained, quickly closing the gap between the two of them. "You are incapable of keeping your nose out of other people's business."

When there was no room left between them, Hermione took another step back, needing to put some distance between them so that she could understand his words."But if you knew that I knew about your lycanthropy...why were you so concerned about keeping me away?" she asked, feeling utterly confused.

"It isn't dangerous for you to be here because I'm a werewolf," he said, advancing on her once again, until her back was pressed against the stone wall. When there was no space left between them, she could see nothing but the heat in his eyes. "It's because you are my _mate_ ," he growled out.

The words, spoken so possessively, sparked something dangerous inside Hermione. She was barely able to gasp, barely able to comprehend what Theo meant, before he was swallowing the noise up with his lips, capturing her mouth in an intense kiss. There was no escaping him, but Hermione never even thought of getting free.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Oh my gosh, the response from last chapter was just overwhelming! I am so glad you guys seem to have liked the mate twist. But, I know you want to get right into it, so I will stop babbling. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter fifteen and be on the lookout for chapter sixteen soon!

* * *

From the moment that Theo captured her lips in a kiss, Hermione was able to think of little else. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what he meant about her being his mate and she certainly wasn't thinking about their unfinished conversation. The only thing that seemed to matter was the way his body pressed against her, the trace of his tongue along the seam of her lips. He didn't coax her into opening up to him, he demanded it.

Hermione was unable to stop her moan from bubbling up the moment that his tongue slid against hers. He brought one hand to her hip, holding her body more snuggly against his, not caring how obscenely he was pressed against her, too delirious from the feeling to care that she could very clearly feel how much she was affecting him. His other hand cradled the back of her head, long fingers tangling in her hair so that she was held just how he wanted.

Needing to get her hands on him, Hermione brought her hands up around his shoulders, her fingers tangling together behind his neck. She wanted him _closer_ to her, but she didn't know how to make that happen. Luckily, Theo seemed to be intent on the same thing, his hands sliding up under the edge of her jumper, until his large hands were resting on the bare skin of her waist. His thumbs moved back and forth across her skin, sending shivers up her spine.

Pressing herself towards him, Hermione stumbled forward, not wanting to push him away, but rather to push him towards the more comfortable bed. It did not take long for him to understand what she wanted. Picking her up by her waist, Theo's lips never left her while he made the short walk to the bed, before depositing her down.

In the blink of an eye, he was on her once again. He gave her open mouthed kisses down the column of her neck, tugging down on her jumper to get access to more of her skin. Hermione felt dizzy and off-balance, feeling as if she could only be grounded by holding onto him. She wrapped her arms around him, her legs opening to cradle him. Greedily, she let her fingers trail up and down his back, hoping to fill out the mental picture of him that she'd had. She was intrigued by the lean muscle that she could feel.

She felt a zing of excitement when he gave a firm suck to her neck and an unbidden thought came over her. Was he trying to mark her? He'd said he was her mate, so didn't that mean that she was _made_ for him? The idea was intoxicating and sent a surge of heat to the spot between her legs. _Merlin_ , she wanted him closer. She wished that she didn't have her jeans on.

Using her hands to cup his jaw, Hermione pulled him up to kiss him again, wanting to feel even closer to him than before. He caught her lower lip between his teeth, giving her a little nip before invading her mouth again. She moaned, feeling his tongue tangling with hers once again, and she was positive that she could never get sick of kissing Theo. She felt as if she were being consumed by him, but she couldn't find it in herself to care.

Theo was a man possessed, singularly focused on making her body sing. He brought one large hand to trail down her side only to snake up under her jumper once again. He left it on the curve of her waist for a moment, letting Hermione bask in the feeling of the heat seeping into her body. She groaned, feeling his thumb moving back and forth, caressing her skin softly. Before long, though, he was no longer content just to keep his hand there. Cautiously, treating her as if she might bolt like some kind of wild animal, he let his hand wander further up, until he was cupping her breast.

Even though they were separated by the cotton material of her bra, Hermione was overwhelmed by the sensation. Arching her back, she sighed into him when he gave her an affectionate squeeze, her nipple hardening under the fabric. He must have felt her body's response to him, too, because in an instant, he was shuddering against her, as though he couldn't believe she was actually reacting this way.

He broke their kiss, his blue eyes staring into hers full of hunger. She was sure that her cheeks were flushed and she was gasping for air, lips swollen and kiss stung. Hermione would not relinquish her hold on him, and pulled him back down for another kiss, not wanting to stop what they had started. She couldn't find it in herself to be embarrassed about the way she was aching for him.

The Slytherin was easily coaxed into another kiss, his mouth fitting against hers perfectly, but it was over again all too soon. He pressed his face into the crook of her neck, breathing in deeply. Hermione wondered what it was about her scent that drew him in so much. Her heart was pounding against her ribcage, and she wondered if he could feel her heartbeat. She wondered if he could feel the way that he made her heart race.

Theo pulled away with a groan that sounded animalistic, more like a growl than anything else. Hermione wasn't ready for their needy explorations of one another to be over. "What?" she asked, her eyes focusing on his well-kissed lips. "Why did you stop?" It was the first words they had spoken since he revealed that she was his mate.

"Fucking _Salazar_ , Hermione," he said, looking like he'd like to resume where they left off once again. "You have to _leave_. It's almost time." He sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, looking as if he was too full of energy to sit still.

She found herself shaking her head. "There is no way for me to leave, Theo," she said, unwilling to leave his side so close to moonrise. "The warding is too good." She felt slightly drunk off of his kisses, and wanted nothing more than to pull him back on top of her.

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered, his blue eyes boring into hers, looking incredibly guilty. It seemed like he wanted to say more, but he held himself back. She wondered how he thought he would be able to hurt her. Did he think his wolf would maul her, or was there something more serious at play? Did he think that he would hurt her emotionally?

Hermione shook her head back and forth, knowing that it wasn't possible. "You won't hurt me, Theo, I know it," she insisted, feeling a little bit like a broken record. She had no idea how to get him to stop panicking enough long enough to just listen to her. "Listen, you're taking wolfsbane, right? I figure Dumbledore wouldn't let you stay in the school if you weren't."

"Yes, I've been taking-"

"So then, see, you won't hurt me," she explained, hoping to get him to use reason to see through this issue. "Wolfsbane allows you to keep your mind through the transformation. So I know you won't hurt me, because, well, you don't want to hurt me right now do you?"

"Of course not," he snapped, irritated that such a thing could even be suggested. Theo ran his hand down his face. "Please, Hermione, I'm barely able to hold myself back around you already," he revealed, sounding sad. "But this close to moonrise, it's just torture to be so close to you and to know that...I just don't know if I will be able to control myself," he admitted, sounding ashamed.

"I didn't mind," she insisted, thinking that she might just go mad if she couldn't feel his lips on hers again. "The kissing, I mean," she added with a blush. "You have no idea how long I've wanted you to kiss me. Since that time in the broom closet. So, you don't have to hold back around me."

Her confession rendered Theo momentarily speechless, like he couldn't believe that she honestly might want to be with him, even though she'd just spent the better part of an hour rubbing herself up against him. His pupils were blown wide with desire, and he looked nearly about to give into her greedy hands before he blinked and cleared his mind. "You are taking this too well," he said, glumly. "You must not be thinking clearly."

"It's a shock, that's for sure," Hermione told him, really thinking about what he'd insisted for the first time. "And of course I have _loads_ of questions...I suppose that I didn't know werewolves even had mates in the first place...and how do you _know_ that it's me?" she rambled on, all of the unknowns sinking in for the first time. Shaking her head, she refocused on the task at hand - comforting Theo. "But, it's something that we can learn to work through. Together," she ended her sentence brightly.

Theo looked ready to argue with her, but then he groaned out in pain. Standing from the bed she was lounging on, he staggered. "Please, Hermione, go," he implored. " _Moonrise_ -" he gasped out, unable to complete the thought as his transformation began.

Hermione was sure that she would never get used to seeing the transformation someone underwent when they began to morph into a werewolf. She had witnessed Remus's change twice, but knowing what was yet to come only made it seem more horrible. She felt even worse knowing that Theo was still so concerned about her presence in the room with her, thinking that he was going to hurt her. Wishing that she had thought about this before sneaking into his room, she tried to reassure him. "It's okay, Theo. I _know_ you won't hurt me," she told him. "I'm your mate."

Despite all of his protestations, Hermione was positive that Theo wouldn't actually hurt her. She had already been positive that while on wolfsbane, he wouldn't want to attack her, but after learning that she was his mate as well, she knew that he wouldn't let harm come to her. She knew that she was probably safest in here with Theo at her side.

She tried not to let the sound of snapping bone and growing muscle frighten her too much. It seemed to go on for an eternity, but in the end, she knew that it was all said and done with in a matter of minutes. When it was all over, a beautiful dark wolf was looking up at her with knowing eyes.

Biting her lower lip, she hoped that Theo wouldn't be _too_ cross with her in the morning. She _had_ brought some chocolate with her, just to hopefully smooth things over. Lying back down on the bed, she gave a great yawn, surprised by how tired she suddenly felt. Rolling onto her side, she stared down at that wolf who looked thoroughly irritated with her. "Oh, please don't look at me like that," she said with a frown. "I know that it's still you in there, Theo."

He was not impressed.

Patting the bed beside her, she moved so that there would be room enough for the furry creature. "Come on," she encouraged. "There's room enough for both of us."

While he still seemed reluctant, he eventually jumped up onto the bed, before curling up in a ball. Hermione let her fingers run through his fur, giggling slightly when he snuffled at her, enjoying the sensation rather more than he wanted to. It was more than comfortable to lie there with him, knowing that it was still Theo inside the wolf's body. Feeling the warmth radiating from the large creature next to her, Hermione's eyes were quickly drooping shut in sleep.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I know that you guys have a lot of questions, but they won't be answered quite yet...soon, though, I promise! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter sixteen and be on the lookout for chapter seventeen soon!

* * *

Hermione woke suddenly in the morning. She had been in such a warm, comfortable sleep that it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what had woken her up until she noticed the warm blue eyes staring at her. The previous nights events came rushing back to her - going to see Theo, confronting him about being a werewolf, him insisting that she was his mate, and the _blistering hot_ kiss.

Gasping, Hermione sat up from where she was lying. She had been cuddled up to Theo's chest, arms wrapped around his middle. He couldn't keep his eyes off of her, and he was blushing brightly, perhaps remembering what they had done just as much.

Clearing her throat, Hermione kept her eyes down on her lap. "See, I told you you wouldn't hurt me," she said, shrugging her shoulders. Now, in the light of morning, when she was no longer feeling so impulsive, she could understand what a bad idea it had been for her to stay there. She couldn't imagine the amount of stress that Theo must have been under.

"Hermione, you shouldn't have been here," he insisted, sitting up with his back propped against the wall. "You could have been seriously hurt."

"I couldn't think of any other way to get you to talk to me, Theo," she countered. "How long do we have here until someone comes back for you?" she couldn't imagine how mortifying it would be for them to be discovered by Professor Slughorn. There would be all sorts of questions that she didn't think that she would be able to answer. If she _was_ Theo's mate, she was sure that Slughorn would be the last person he wanted him to know.

"They never come back to get me in the morning," he said, running his hand down his face. The scruff on his face was back, looking especially attractive. "The wards drop once the sun rises in the morning and I am free to leave whenever I can pull myself up. The only care about locking me in," he groused, sounding especially bitter.

Hermione was suddenly aware of just how awkward this was. She had spent a lot of time talking with Theo and she always enjoyed spending time with him, but now she was painfully aware of the sexual attraction that they had between one another. A part of her wanted to reach out and kiss him again, but another part of her was too worried that he would try to push her away again like he had before.

"You should just forget that this ever happened," he said finally, his jaw held in tension, as though he wanted to say even more but was holding himself back.

She reached out to put her hand on his leg. "Theo...you don't have to worry about me. I won't tell anyone about your...lycanthropy. Your secret is safe with me," she said. "I won't even tell Harry or Ron. I promise."

Theo cleared his throat. "I wasn't suggesting that you would go telling anyone about it," he answered with a frown. "You might be a reckless Gryffindor, but no one could ever accuse you of not standing up for your friends." There was clear admiration in his blue eyes.

"So you admit that we are friends," she said with a smirk, just glad that she could get him to admit it. She had realized that he was just trying to push her away, but she wasn't sure how to let him know that she wasn't going anywhere, especially not after what had happened between them. "You don't have to push me away, Theo," she insisted.

"It's too dangerous, Hermione," he countered. "You can't...I care a lot about you, and I couldn't stand it if you got hurt because of me."

"You aren't going to be able to just keep me away, not when I am your mate, Theo," she said. She wasn't entirely sure what being a werewolf's mate meant, but she was going to get to the bottom of it, one way or another. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but she caught him before he could make some additional argument. "Theo, it's okay. I realized it last night, but...you are what I smell in amortentia. So, we must be...meant for one another."

"Hermione Granger, who hates Divinations, thinks we are meant for one another!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Ask yourself - were we meant for one another before I was bitten?"

She narrowed her eyes, thinking over what he was suggesting. If he hadn't been a werewolf, would feelings have grown between them while they worked on their project? She wasn't entirely sure, but she knew that it didn't matter anymore. Theo _was_ a werewolf and there was no changing it.

But, he did bring up something that she had been wondering about since she put the pieces together. "What happened to you?" she asked, quietly. "How were you attacked?" She knew that it would be a touchy subject, but she wanted to know what had happened.

He swallowed, his adam's apple bobbing up and down. He looked angry, like he was warring with himself on whether to divulge more to her or not. "My father needed to be punished after his failure at the Department of Mysteries. Just like Draco's father," he said, slowly, cautiously. "The Dark Lord decided that my punishment should be to be turned into a werewolf."

Hermione felt herself gasp in shock. She knew that she shouldn't expect anything less from someone like Lord Voldemort, but it still made her heart ache for Theo, to be punished for something that he didn't do.

"He gave me to Fenrir Greyback," Theo continued. "He was only to change me, not to maul me, and that made Greyback furious that he wouldn't be able to do with me as he pleased. But in the end, he bit me anyway. He said he was thrilled to welcome another wolf into the fold."

"And what does your father think?" Hermione questioned, wondering if having your son forcibly changed into a werewolf would be enough to make the elderly man rethink his devotion to the Lord Voldemort.

"He was furious...with himself for messing up so horribly," Theo said with a scowl on his handsome face. "He cares more about pleasing the Dark Lord than he does about his own son. I'd always known that he didn't like me, but I'd at least hoped that he would care more about me than this." His eyes dropped to his hands. "I hope that he dies in Azkaban."

"That's terrible, Theo," Hermione said, wanting to reach out and wrap him up in a hug. He wished that she could take away all of his hurt. "Does anyone else know about it besides me and the professors?" she asked. "Zabini and Malfoy?"

"Of course Draco knows about it," Theo said with a sad smile on his face. "He was there when it happened," he revealed, shaking his head. "Now he only thinks of me with pity, when what he is facing is far worse. Zabini figured it out after the first month. We are roommates after all, and he isn't as stupid as Crabbe and Goyle who can't seem to put it together."

"Crabbe and Goyle's fathers were also at the Department of Mysteries," Hermione murmured quietly. "Have they been punished the same way?"

Theo shook his head. "No, their fathers are as dumb as rocks, and so the Dark Lord doesn't expect much out of them. Not like my father and Lucius," he said with a sneer. "My father was one of the Dark Lord's original followers. Did you know that?" he asked, without any hint of pride in his voice.

Hermione shook her head softly. "No, I had no idea," she told him honestly. She had known that Theo's father was an older man, but that would put him considerably older than many of their classmates parents. Suddenly, Theo's wish for his father to die in Azkaban did not seem so far fetched. "Theo, do you...do you wish to follow Lord Voldemort? Is that why you are trying to push me away? Because...because I am a muggleborn."

He looked horrified that she could even suggest such a thing. In an instant, he was lunging towards her, cupping her jaw tenderly in his large hand. There was such aching sweetness in his eyes that it nearly took her breath away. "I've been trying to tell you all along that my...reluctance to be around you has nothing to do with the fact that you are a muggleborn," he whispered. His thumb moved back and forth across her lower lip, and he looked for a moment like he was about to kiss her once again. "But, I am a werewolf, so you must know that nothing good can come of this. Please, I am begging you, just forget everything that happened last night."

The Gryffindor frowned, knowing that what he was asking her was impossible. She was certain that Theo was going to invade her every waking moment now that she knew the whole truth. "I will not forget it, Theo," she said firmly. "We can work through this together. I am your _mate_ ," she insisted, even though she didn't even know if there was such a thing or what it entailed.

He gave her a sad smile, before he stood up from the bed, straightening his clothes with his wand and grabbing his book bag in hand. "You are stubborn, Hermione," he said with a half-smile, as though he might be proud of her. "Please, just forget this ever happened. I won't hold you to anything you are unprepared for."

Hermione wanted to argue with him more, to tell him that it didn't matter, but she knew that he was right. Instead, she watched him leave the little room, and herself, behind him. She wasn't sure how long she sat there, but when she finally stood up herself, she was positive that she wasn't going to be able to get Theo out from under her skin. She needed more answers on what all of this entailed.

Instead of heading back to Gryffindor tower where she should have been the whole night, she turned and made her way to the owlery instead. It was a short walk, but she felt buoyed with each step that she took towards it. She needed answers, but luckily for her she knew exactly where to look for them.

Pulling some parchment and ink out of her bag, she quickly began scrawling a letter to the one man who would tell her honestly what the situation entailed. _Dear Remus_ , she started, staring at the splotch of ink that formed when she couldn't decide how she wanted to proceed. Once she started writing it out, though, the words flowed from her. She mentioned that one of her classmates had the same problem that he had been having at school, caused by a mutual friend.

She decided that the best way to get honest answers from Remus was to just be as honest with him as possible. Was there such a thing as a werewolf mate? And, if there was, what did being a werewolf mate entail? Finally, she begged that he wouldn't tell anyone what she had revealed, but especially not Harry and Ron. She wasn't sure who all had been made aware of the situation.

Feeling anxious, she signed the letter and folded it carefully, before putting a variety of charms on the parchment so that only Remus would be able to read it. It wouldn't do to just have anybody read what was inside. She had forgotten to ask Theo is he was a registered werewolf or not and it wouldn't do to reveal his status to the rest of the world just because her letter ended up in the wrong hands.

Giving it to the owl, she watched the bird fly away, off to Remus. She hoped that he would write her back quickly, because she wasn't sure how she could live without knowing the truth.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad that you are enjoying the story so far. Don't worry, Hermione will definitely get Theo around to her way of thinking. Alright, so I think I have this fully plotted now, and I believe it will end up being around thirty-six chapters in total. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter seventeen and be on the lookout for chapter eighteen soon!

* * *

Hermione had spent the remaining week of her winter break searching the air of the Great Hall for her return owl from Remus. But, no matter how much she willed it, he hadn't written back to her. When she wasn't at mealtimes, she wandered the halls aimlessly, hoping to find Theo once again, so they could talk about what had happened again. She hadn't been able to sleep without him visiting her in her dreams and she ached to have him in her arms once again. But, no matter how much she willed bumping into him randomly, Theo remained just out of her grasp. She was sure that he was trying to avoid her.

When Yule break was finally over, Hermione was happy, if only because it meant that she would no longer be so lonely. Harry had pulled her into a quick hug as soon as he found her, telling her how much he had missed her while he was at the Burrow. Lavender and Dean had come by one day, leaving Harry as the odd man out.

Hermione had thanked him for the present he'd sent her and filled him in on what she'd done while he was away. She kept the details of her and Theo's midnight tryst to herself as promised, even though she was dying to tell _someone_.

The first dinner back, Hermione _finally_ received post from Remus. Her eyes widened comically when she read the return address, and she clutched the parchment to her chest happily. Ron had noticed that she had received the letter and treated it with suspicion. "What's got you so happy?" he asked with a sneer. "Krum writing to you again?"

"No," Hermione said sternly, hating that Ron would only engage with her when it suited his needs to put her down. "And it's none of your business."

Harry was quick to read the name on the outside of the letter though, and announced it. "Remus is writing to you?" he asked, with his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. "What does he want to talk to you about?"

Hermione barely resisted telling him how terrible that had sounded, as though she wasn't worth writing too. Instead, she gave him a tight smile. "I just asked Remus for some help with some Defense Against the Dark Arts theory, Harry," she lied easily enough. "It's just a bit of outside research to help with an essay."

"But we haven't even been assigned an essay, yet," Harry complained. Defense Against the Dark Arts was no longer his favorite class now that Professor Snape had taken over as their professor.

"There goes Hermione. She can't stand not being the first in the class so she has to go out of her way to score extra points," Ron snarked, his mouth half full of mashed potatoes. "Can't you just let Harry do better than you for once?"

She had to bite her tongue to stop from countering that that rather sounded like Ron's modus operandi. Then, she remembered that he wouldn't even know what those words _meant_. "Harry, Professor Snape gave us the whole syllabus at the beginning of the year. We've known about the essay since September, even if we haven't started the subject matter yet." She stood from the table, eager to read the missive in private, away from any prying eyes. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go take this to the library."

Hermione was so determined to read what was inside Remus's note that she didn't even react when she heard Ron telling Harry to let her go, how he'd forgotten how annoying she was while they'd been at the Burrow.

Tearing into the note, Hermione lapped up Remus's words. There was almost no academic research on werewolves, mostly because werewolves were such secretive creatures. They certainly wouldn't share something as precious as details of a werewolf mate with an outsider.

 _Hermione,_

 _Your message fills me with a lot of questions, but I will wait for a time in which I can speak with you personally. Your secret about your classmate is safe with me and I won't tell Harry or Ron what you revealed to me. The question about the veracity of a werewolf mate intrigues me. I am hoping that you are acting in good faith and not as a messenger for Tonks._

 _You've asked if werewolves can have mates. The answer is yes. While not every werewolf has a mate, they are exceedingly rare to find in a werewolf's lifetime. Still, it is seen as a precious gift to find your mate, and a werewolf would find it nearly impossible to stay away from its mate for long. A werewolf would do everything in its power to protect its mate. Hermione, I do hope that you are being careful with what you are asking about._

 _We should talk about this more when I see you next._

 _Remus_

She felt her heart stutter in joy to learn that it was real...to learn that she really was Theo's mate. She knew that she had a terrible crush on the tall Slytherin, and she knew that it could grow into something much deeper, especially now that she knew the chemistry that they shared. Now that she knew he wouldn't be able to keep pushing her away for long, Hermione was more determined than ever to speak to Theo about it.

Marching over to his area of the library, she was surprised to find him sitting at his usual desk. "You didn't run away from me this time," Hermione said proudly, before slipping into the chair next to him.

Theo's cheeks turned pink. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said, stiffly, as if he didn't even believe his own words.

Hermione smirked at him. "Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about," she countered. "You've been avoiding me ever since...Christmas Eve. But, Theo, I'm not going to be able to let go of what happened between us. I haven't stopped thinking about it since you left. Don't you think about it too?"

"Of course I do, Hermione," he answered softly. "You are the first thing I think of when I wake up, and the last thing I think of before I go to sleep. Your scent clings to me and the way that you felt in my arms haunts my dreams."

She felt herself go warm all over. She shared his sentiments completely, but it was another thing to learn that he felt that way at all. There was nothing she'd like more than to spend the rest of the evening with him, kissing him again and again. "I know that you are just trying to keep me safe by trying to push me away," she said. She wasn't sure what he was trying to protect her from, but Voldemort and the Death Eaters seemed the most likely. "But it isn't going to work. I can't let you go, Theo."

He looked like he was going to argue with her again, so she leaned forward, pressing her lips against his in a chaste kiss. Breaking away, she nearly smirked at the disappointed look on his face. "Here, read this," she said, sliding the letter across the table.

Theo read in silence, only to look hurt when he finally looked up. "You told someone about me?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head quickly, giving Theo's hand a squeeze. "I didn't mention your name...nothing that could come back to you, but...I just needed some answers," Hermione explained, wetting her lower lip. "Professor Lupin is a werewolf, too, as I am sure you are already aware, and I couldn't think of anyone else who'd be able to help me."

For a moment, it seemed like Theo was going to argue with her once again. But then, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "I didn't have anyone else to ask either. It's not as if I can go to _Greyback_ about something like this," he said with a frown, anger bubbling up inside of him. "But now you know. I was telling the truth."

"I wasn't doubting you, Theo," she countered. "I just...needed more answers."

That seemed to be the limit of discussion that Theo was able to have in that moment. His eyes grew lidded and his whole being seemed to focus in on her lips. The brief peck she'd given him before was no longer enough. Surging forward, he tangled his hand in her hair, pulling her against him.

His lips were insistent on hers, as though he were trying to dominate her with just one kiss. He deepened it immediately, his tongue pressing against hers, sending a fizzle of warmth shooting down her spine to rest in her center. Theo was no longer frantic and needy like he'd been before the moonrise. This time, she was sure that she had the full attention of Theo Nott, the man. He was slow and determined, commiting each movement, each moan that he wrought from her, to memory.

Hermione felt like she was burning. She wrapped her own arms around him, happily letting him pull her into his lap. The library had all but faded away, not worried about anyone stumbling upon them there. It was too early into the new term for anyone to be there but them. Her fingers played with the skin on the back of his neck, wishing that she could pull the jumper he wore over his head, wanting to know what he looked like under his uniform. She wanted to feel the heat of his bare skin against hers.

His other hand was left firmly on her waist, gripping her tight against him. The warmth that had settled between her legs had grown to an intense heat, her center wet and aching. She squeezed her legs together tightly, hoping to find some relief, only to find herself disappointed. Hermione wondered if he was just as affected as she was. The wild beating of his heart against her breast made her own heart flutter in excitement, desire.

She wasn't sure how long they had stayed there, kissing lazily in the library, wishing desperately for more, but eventually it was Theo who broke the kiss. He pressed his forehead against her shoulder, groaning, as if he wished to never be parted from her.

"What, what is it?" Hermione questioned, feeling an odd sense of deja vu. She hoped that he wasn't going to tell her to forget this, too.

"Madam Pince is coming this way," he whispered, urging her to find her own seat once again.

Hermione was about to protest, but then she heard the distinctive footsteps of the library matron coming their way. Madam Pince rounded the corner, sneering at the pair of students. "What are the two of you doing here?" she demanded.

"Studying, Madam Pince," Hermione said, unable to hide the lingering lust in her voice. "Just trying to get off to a good start for the new school year."

"Surely we weren't being too loud, Madam Pince," Theo added, his voice sounding gravely and rough. Hermione was certain she would be imagining him saying her name in that exact voice later.

Madam Pince looked as if she really did not believe them, not even a little bit. But, she had no evidence to the contrary. "No, of course not," she said finally, looking back and forth between Hermione and Theo. "You should clear out, though. It's nearly curfew."

Checking her watch, Hermione realized that it was about time for her to head back to Gryffindor tower. She couldn't believe that she had spent the entire evening with Theo, but couldn't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Biding Theo goodnight under the watchful eye of Madam Pince, Hermione gave the Slytherin a look to let him know that their discussion was far from over.


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I know that so many of you have been asking for some Theo POV, so I hope that you will enjoy this chapter. So, because of the holidays, the next update will not be until December 28, so I can enjoy the holidays. Then, the next will be on January 3rd. After the new year, we will resume our regular update schedule :) You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter eighteen and be on the lookout for chapter nineteen next week!

* * *

Theo should have known that it would be a losing battle to keep Hermione away from him once he revealed the truth of her status as his mate. She was so frustratingly Gryffindor, sometimes, determined to ignore his suggestion to keep some space between them. He was only doing it because he cared so much for her, like a cloying, aching sweetness that never left him. He would be devastated if she got hurt because of him.

Worse, he knew that he would be absolutely crushed if someday she decided that she didn't want to be with him any longer. It was something he wasn't sure if he'd be able to survive, living life normally after he knew what it was like to be with Hermione.

He knew that she wasn't being so stubborn because she was trying to hurt him or herself. He knew that she was just honestly being a good friend, trying to show him how much she genuinely cared for him. It was a bit of a foreign concept, to have someone treat him like Hermione did. Of course, he had other friends, but she was so earnest and genuine, seeing him for him and not just as a sum of stereotypes.

After she'd snuck into his room on the Seventh Floor during January's full moon, he'd made a promise to her that he wouldn't hide away from her if she never snuck back in before a transformation. He hadn't been lying to her when he'd told her that he could barely control himself around her normally, but that close to moonrise, he was barely able to keep the wolf at bay - a wolf who was quite insistent on claiming his mate, not bothered that Theo wanted to give her time to understand what kind of commitment that would be.

She'd agreed to the trade, but was still forced to spend the night with him a second time. They spent the lead up kissing furiously, with Hermione on his lap, grinding against him. Theo hadn't been able to keep his hands to himself, slipping up under her jumper and bra to cup her breasts. It hadn't been enough - _Salazar, not nearly enough_ \- but he'd contented himself with it anyway.

Once he'd transformed, he had settled into the bed with her, lulled asleep by the feeling of her fingers running through his fur.

They continued to meet in the library at their usual time. They no longer had the Arithmancy project to use as an excuse, but if anyone noticed they didn't say anything about it. Even Draco, who had been aware of Theo's growing interest in Hermione, had become too wrapped up in his own _project_ that he hadn't realized anything was amiss between his friend and the Gryffindor.

The first time that they met after that fateful full moon, Hermione had shown up flushed and smirking. "Apparently my roommates noticed that I didn't come back to the dorm on Friday," she said, perhaps remembering their secret tryst. "They were threatening to tell Harry and Ron, but apparently Lavender is too concerned about Ron and my relationship to do anything."

The thought of Weasley and Hermione together in a romantic sense was enough to get Theo's hackles up. If that ginger weasel ever even _tried_ to touch Hermione in a way that wasn't purely platonic, Theo knew he wouldn't be able to hold back from hurting him. "You don't...wish that there was something more between you and Weasley do you?" he asked, gritting his teeth to get the words out. It would absolutely pulverize his heart if she did, but he would let her go if it meant she would be happy.

Instead, Hermione was giving him a shy smile, peeking up at him from beneath sooty lashes. "I already told you before, I don't fancy Ron," she whispered before reaching across the table to grab his hand. Her fingers ghosted along the inside of his wrist, sending a shiver up his spine. "I fancy someone else."

It wasn't as if she had come out directly and said that she fancied him, but Theo knew that it was the truth all the same. Internally, he could feel his wolf purring in delight, his heart soaring to know that his mate wanted him as much as he wanted her. Honestly, even if Hermione hadn't played her hand by sneaking into his room at the full moon, he wasn't sure he'd be able to avoid her now that he'd kissed her. The pull was too strong.

Reaching into her bag, Hermione pulled out a bar of Honeyduke's chocolate and slid it across the table to him. "Here," she said with a sweet smile on her face, before she pulled out a few more books. "Although you are looking much better today."

"Everything that I've read has said it will get easier the more transformations I go through," he said, scratching at the back of his neck and taking a bite out of the bar, enjoying the taste thoroughly. "Is this another of Lupin's suggestions?" he asked, realizing that she'd brought him chocolate after every full moon.

Hermione nodded, pushing her hair behind her ear. "Yes, he's got quite a sweet tooth in general," she revealed. It was odd for her to know so much about a former Professor, and even odder to know that they had remained friends. But, it did explain why she was so understanding about his condition. "But he told me that chocolate does help with a lot of the symptoms. Bet Madame Pomfrey never gives you chocolate."

Theo couldn't hide a smile at that. "No, she is always trying to give me the foulest tasting concoctions," he said, wondering why no one had ever tried to make potions taste better than they did.

She pulled out a slim book which she had just received via owl post the day prior. Theo was nearly unable to keep his eyes off of Hermione during meal times, hating the distance that separated them. She was determined to learn as much as she could about werewolves and their mates as she could get her hands on. He was embarrassed to learn just how explicit some of the accounts were. He did not need a book to tell him what he wanted to do with Hermione - his body seemed to know just with instinct what to do.

He watched helplessly as she nibbled on her lower lip while she read through the book. _Salazar_ , he wished that he could suck that plump lip between his own, using his tongue to sooth the hurt she was inflicting on it.

Hermione cleared her throat, pulling Theo from his reverie. He flushed, realizing that he must have been staring at her. "Theo?" she questioned. "How did...how did you know that it was me? That I was your mate?"

Rubbing the back of his neck, he wasn't entirely sure how to put it into words. "It's hard to describe accurately. I didn't know that it was you until we were paired together in Arithmancy. That first day, you sat next to me, and I was just completely...overwhelmed by you," he said, his eyes slipping closed as he remembered. "You scent was like the greatest thing I'd ever smelled - like bergamot...fresh roses and amber, clean and delicate, soft, feminine..." Theo trailed off.

His eyes snapped open when he realized just how carried away he'd gotten. He could feel his cheeks going red from his blush that he couldn't hide. Merlin, he just felt so strongly for her that it was easy to get lost in the feeling. He just hoped that he wouldn't scare her off with his intensity.

"I thought that you...that you were _repulsed_ by me that first day," she said back. "That you might not like working with a muggleborn."

Theo was shocked to hear that his mate could ever think that he didn't want to be with her. "On the contrary, I feared that if I made eye contact with you, I'd spill everything to you, right there, in front of the whole class," he responded. Lifting his hand, he cupped her check, enjoying the way that she nuzzled into his hand. His breath caught in his throat. "Or worse, put you on your back right then and there and kiss you."

He wanted to groan when he saw the way that Hermione's pupils dilated at his words. There was no denying the physical chemistry between them, but he was unused to sharing such normally private thoughts with anyone, let alone with the object of his desires. The thought that she might share those feelings put a strain on his tenuous self control.

"That might have been a little shocking," she teased eventually. "I probably would not have taken it very well." Hermione bit her lower lip, considering her next words carefully. "So you didn't even know you liked me until that moment?" she asked.

Theo felt his cheeks turn pink once again, and he wondered if there would ever be a time that he didn't blush around Hermione. "No," he answered, deciding that honesty would only help him here. "I knew that I liked you before, I just didn't know about the...mate aspect of it until that day in Arithmancy."

Hermione looked oddly pleased with herself in that moment, but he supposed he could understand where she would be coming from. There was something decidedly unsexy about falling madly in lust with someone in an instant, as though it were manufactured by magic, rather than something real. At least now she knew there had been something bubbling up - a crush he would have been unlikely to ever act on - before he'd been made into a werewolf.

"Do...do Malfoy and Zabini know about me?" she asked cautiously. Theo wasn't sure if it was his response she was concerned about or his potential reaction to it. "About your mate I mean? I feel like...I caught Malfoy starting at me the other day."

"I haven't told them about it, if that's what you mean," he said scratching at the scar that now marred his jaw. "But, Draco is smart. I don't think it would take long for him to figure things out. And, he certainly knows there is something between you and I. He's noticed how...eager I was to always meet you in the library...far too eager for it to be _just_ a school project," Theo revealed, guiltily. Part of him wished he hadn't been quite so transparent in front of Draco, but then again, he was his oldest friend...he doubted he'd be able to keep much from the blond.

Hermione did look worried at hearing that. "Do you think he'd ever...try to use it against you? Use it against me?" she asked, as delicately as possible. "I mean, I am not naive...I know what kind of person Lucius Malfoy is. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine Draco as the same."

Silence passed between the two of them. They had only ever skirted around this issue, despite both of them wanting to talk it through. It was no secret that his own father was a death eater, but he'd never come out straight and denounced them either. Theo knew that there was no possible way that he could stay on their side, not when they had given him to Fenrir Greyback to do with as they pleased. Further, now that his mate was Hermione Granger, he knew that he would be helpless to pick any other side. He wouldn't fight for Dumbledore or Harry Potter. He was on Hermione's side and her side alone.

But that did put a significant wedge between himself and his friends. It was a matter of fact that he wasn't quite willing to deal with yet.

Looking down at Hermione with a what he hoped was a reassuring look, Theo tried to calm her fears. "You just leave Draco to me, okay?" he begged. "He's my friend and I know he wouldn't do anything to hurt me."

Theo just hoped that he and Draco were in agreement over what that was.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I hope that you enjoyed your holidays if you celebrated and thank you to everyone who wished me a merry christmas :) next stop, new years! I am excited to share what I have planned for 2019, which I will be posting soon on my tumblr (nauticalparamour) - you can also check out sneak peeks, story updates and ask questions there.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter nineteen and be on the lookout for chapter twenty next week!

* * *

Meeting up with Theo in the library had become torture for Hermione. While she enjoyed spending any time with him, there was no denying that their physical relationship was not able to...blossom while they were tucked away in the stacks. Madam Pince had grown increasingly suspicious of duo of Slytherin and Gryffindor. They were only able to get in one or two snogs before the older woman came skulking around looking for them.

At first she thought that it Theo might have been orchestrating it that way, so that they didn't move things too fast. He seemed to have a nearly pathological need to make sure that he wasn't pushing her into anything that she didn't want. Normally, it would be something that Hermione appreciated, if she wasn't absolutely dying to go further than him.

After a month of thwarted chances, Hermione had finally begged Theo to sneak off to some abandoned classroom with her. To her surprise, he agreed readily, even suggesting that they meet in the room that he used to change in. Once they were finished with whatever homework or revision that needed doing - Hermione wasn't going to slack on her studies, werewolf mate or not - they would retreat to the little room to do some further research on werewolf mates, and then try a little practical application as well.

After a frustrating look into a book that promised all the secrets of werewolf mating habits, but ended up containing enough salacious drawings to have them _both_ blushing furiously, Theo had finally grown so flustered by her presence that he pulled Hermione into his lap, pressing his face into the crook of her neck. "This author has no fucking idea what he's talking about," he groused, his teeth scraping the skin of her neck, before his tongue followed their path. "I've never had a mate before, but I _know_ that it's wrong."

Hermione gasped, wrapping her arms around his neck. She wriggled around a bit, hoping to do something to sooth the persistent ache between her legs. She felt a surge of feminine pride when her arse came in contact with his hard cock, pleased to know that he was _just_ as affected by her as she was by him. "How do you know?" she asked, cupping Theo's jaw so that she could pull him into a tentative kiss.

Theo, always the dominant one in these situations, immediately deepened the kiss, his tongue entering her mouth. She sighed into him, feeling her center clench in desire each time his tongue slid against hers. Hermione grew so focused on him in that moment that she nearly forgot that she'd asked a question at all.

After a few moments, once her mind was sufficiently turned into mush, Theo pulled away, groaning. " _Salazar_ , you make it so fucking difficult to focus when you smell like you do," he whispered, almost to himself.

"I smell?" Hermione asked, a bright red blush coming to her cheeks. "Like what?"

"Good enough to eat," he said, giving her a wolfish grin, his pupils dilating in desire.

She gasped, feeling her face heat up even more, but completely unable to deny the rush of slickness between her legs at his thinly veiled meaning. Biting her lower lip, she barely parted her legs, but it was enough for Theo to notice the action. Taking her invitation, he moved his hand from her hip to her upper thigh. Hermione watched in delight as his large hand slowly slid up her leg, delving underneath the skirt. She parted her legs further, her anticipation only furthered by not being able to see what he was doing under the plain gray fabric. Her whole being was completely focused on the feel of the rough pads of her fingers sliding against the silk-smooth skin of her inner thighs.

Her breath hitched when she finally felt his finger meet the edge of her cotton knickers. Merlin, she wanted nothing more than for him to apply some pressure to her center. She knew that if he just touched her, it would help to alleviate the ache.

Just as he was about to trade his teasing touches for something more substantial, the door to their quiet little room was bursting open. Hermione gasped in surprise when she turned, seeing Harry Potter brandishing his wand in one hand and the open Marauder's map in the other.

"Get your slimy paws off my friend, Nott," he growled, always determined to play the hero.

Hermione gasped, leaping up from Theo's lap, straightening out her skirt. "Harry, what are you doing here?" she demanded, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her up. She was _not_ nearly prepared to have this sort of conversation with Harry at this moment.

"Calm down, Potter," Theo said, effecting the bored drawl that seemed to come easily to all Slytherins.

"Don't tell me to calm down," Harry answered irritated. "What were you doing with Hermione? Did you think you could take advantage of her and I _wouldn't_ find out about it?"

The room's lone female occupant did not appreciate being talked about as if she wasn't there. "Harry, this is really _none_ of your business," she pleaded, wishing that he would just go away, but knowing that he wouldn't be able to let it go without getting some answers first.

"I wasn't taking advantage of her!" Theo snarled, not accepting the suggestion that he would be doing anything against Hermione's will.

"Well, you were the one with your hand up my friend's skirt, so forgive me if I don't take your word for it," Harry said sarcastically. Crossing the room, he wrapped an arm around Hermione's shoulders. "Are you okay, Hermione?" he asked quietly, obviously very concerned about her safety.

"Oh god," Hermione said, pressing her hands to her cheeks. Of all the ways that she wanted Harry to find out about Theo, this was _definitely_ not one of them. Still, she knew that she couldn't go sneaking around behind the boy's backs forever. Things with Theo were serious, and she would have had to tell her friends eventually. She was just glad that Ron wasn't there, too. "Yes, I am fine, Harry. Theo wasn't doing anything that I didn't want him to."

Harry swallowed thickly as the understanding of what she said sunk in. "You told me nothing was going on with Nott," he said weakly, probably a bit put off by the idea of his friend being so _involved_ with someone.

Hermione bit her lower lip. "I might not have been _completely_ truthful," she said, feeling a bit sorry for lying to him. "But, what are you doing here, Harry?"

"I saw you on the Marauder's Map. I mean, usually you are just in the library, but then I saw that he brought you here," Harry explained, running his fingers through his perpetually messy hair. "And I just imagined the worst I suppose. But how can I not? Hermione, he's a Slytherin and his dad is a Death Eater!"

She turned to look at Theo with large pleading eyes, trying to get him to see her way of thinking. "Please can I tell him, Theo? About everything?" she asked. "He won't tell anyone. I know that we can trust him...but, it's your life, so I won't do anything you don't want."

Theo gave Harry a hard look, assessing the truth of her statement. She knew that it was a huge ask of him, to put his faith in Harry Potter, especially when her friend was making all sorts of wild accusations. "I...fine," Theo agreed, his face guarded.

Hermione was glad that he agreed, because she wasn't sure how she could get Harry to be reasonable without telling him the truth. "Harry, I know that Theo's father is a Death Eater," she explained quietly. "But, this summer, he was punished by Voldemort for his father's failures at the Department of Mysteries," she explained slowly. "He was bitten by Fenrir Greyback."

Harry reeled back hearing that, knowing that it was a fate that had been shared by Remus. "He's a...a werewolf?" he asked, still wrapping his mind around it.

"Yes," Hermione explained softly. "I figured it out because we were working on our project. And then I confronted him about it," she said, deciding not to tell him that Theo was her mate _quite_ yet. She didn't think that Harry would be able handle such a big shock after finding them together. "And, well, I really like Theo, Harry. He and I are...together now," she said, giving the tall Slytherin a shy smile.

Theo returned the smile, coming to stand beside her, placing a possessive arm around her waist. It felt good to be working with Theo as one united front. She felt like she could take on anything if he was with her.

"But, what if he's just using you, Hermione?" Harry asked, still not sounding very convinced. "He could be working on Death Eater stuff...like Malfoy."

"I can't explain it, Harry, but I just know that he isn't using me," she said simply. There would come a time when she would explain their connection, but she couldn't do it now.

"And, I can tell you emphatically, Potter, I have no intention of ever becoming a Death Eater," Theo said, spitting out the words like they were poison. "I didn't want to before, but after being punished for something someone else did, I would never submit to the Dark Lord."

"And Malfoy?" Harry pressed, unable to let it go. It was no secret that Theo and Draco were friends, though. "What will he do when he learns you are on our side."

"I'm not on _your_ side," Theo corrected. "I'm on Hermione's side. I'll do whatever I can to make sure that she's safe and happy." He pressed a tender to kiss to Hermione's temple.

She turned in his arms, looking up at him with her big doe eyes. "Theo, it really would help us if...if you knew what it was that Draco was doing," she said, biting at her lower lip. Hermione hadn't asked anything about Draco so far because it felt wrong to ask Theo to snitch on his friend. But, at the same time, it would be incredibly helpful to prepare against it. "We know he's been working in the Room of Requirement."

Theo ran a hand down his face, looking rather tired. "I really don't know what it is that the Dark Lord has asked Draco to do, but if I had to make a guess, he's been set up to fail. He was given a task because Lucius embarrassed the Dark Lord," he explained, looking as if he'd rather not be sharing the details, but knowing that it was the right thing to do. "I've asked him to tell me time and time again, to share the burden so that I can help him, but he's been reticent, even with me."

Harry sucked in a breath in surprise that Theo was being so open with them. "But, he is working for Voldemort? Is _he_ a Death Eater?" he asked, eager to learn if his hunch was correct.

The young werewolf took a deep breath before giving them a sad nod. "Yes, I've seen his mark," he explained. "But, listen, I _know_ Draco...he's changed from when we started school. He wouldn't have taken the mark if he'd been given an actual choice."

The Gryffindor boy looked skeptical. It was easy not to believe that Draco wouldn't embrace the Dark Mark with open arms, especially considering how much of a pureblood bigot he'd always been. But, Harry had not been blind to the changes that Malfoy had gone through over the last year. "Okay," he finally said, not sounding very convinced.

"Harry," Hermione called. "I'm sorry for not telling you about Theo earlier, but...I didn't think that you and Ron would understand."

"It's alright," Harry said slowly. "I understand. I didn't exactly handle it the best," he said, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. "But, I wouldn't go telling Ron anything unless you want the _whole_ school to know about it."

She hid a smile from him. "Best to just keep it between the three of us, then," she said. "Maybe I'll tell him over the summer." While she knew that there was no avoiding the eventual blowout that Ron would have over the fact that she was dating a Slytherin, she knew that she couldn't keep it from him forever. She and Theo were inextricably linked now - they were mates.

Still, it was nice to know that they had a growing number of supporters on their side when the time came for their relationship to go public.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Happy New Year! Thank you also to everyone who wished me well over the holidays. I hope you had a nice break - I did, but I am ready to get things back to normal. Speaking of, we will be back to our normal, every three day update schedule with this story now. Also 2019 related, have you checked out my tumblr (nauticalparamour)? I posted a list of my planned stories for 2019, and I think there might be some in there that will tickle your fancy. You can also catch sneak peeks, story updates and ask me questions there.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-one in a few days!

* * *

As the semester went by, Hermione could not shake the feeling that something was going to happen. The anticipation filled her stomach with dread with each passing day, like a rollercoaster making the slow climb up to the top. By the time they had gotten to May, she could feel herself teetering on the edge, waiting for the bottom to drop out from underneath her.

She had hoped that telling Harry about Theo would have brought them closer together, but he only pulled further away. Headmaster Dumbledore was always calling him to his office to discuss things, and he was cultivating a relationship with Professor Slughorn for an unknown purpose. His remaining time was spent stalking Malfoy even more than before, culminating in a duel in the girls' lavatory. Malfoy had been seriously hurt enough for Harry to realize that the Potions book he'd been relying on all year was far more dangerous than he'd initially suspected.

Hermione had helped him hide it away from himself, so that he'd never be tempted to use it again, even though she knew that he'd probably already memorized all of the spells. She tried to talk to him about what he'd been up to, but Harry had pulled away, silent.

Ron had broken up with Lavender after Valentine's Day, though the details were all still sketchy for Hermione. She got the impression that that was something he wasn't telling her about the breakup. She wouldn't ask, though, because she didn't want to encourage the sad puppy dog looks that he would give her, probably wondering why she didn't just fall into his arms now that he was available again. Hadn't he realized she hadn't spent a _single_ night pining over him? Instead, she'd been pulled away into empty broom cupboards by a very possessive werewolf named Theo Nott.

Hermione and Theo had been passing the evening in their little room on the Seventh floor one evening close to the end of term, meant to be studying, but snogging instead, when they heard a great commotion in the corridor outside. Immediately grabbing her wand, Hermione wanted to run for the door, only to have Theo hold her back. "What are you doing?" he demanded. "You can't just run out into the unknown like that."

It was nice to have someone looking after her, devoted to her safety and wellbeing, but Hermione Granger never enjoyed being told what to do. "Well, we can't just sit here - we need to find out what's going on," she countered.

"Wait," Theo instructed, before pressing his ear against the door. If he had superior senses, he was certainly going to use them to his advantage, rather than just letting Hermione charge blindly out. "There are six or seven people."

Before they could discuss their plan of attack, Hermione was startled by the sound of someone knocking over a suit of armor followed by a woman's cackling. No matter how she tried, Hermione would never be able to forget that laugh. "Bellatrix," she whispered, staring wide-eyed at Theo.

He nodded at her grimly. "This must be what the Dark Lord had Draco working on," Theo said darkly.

"Well, we can't just let Death Eaters into the school," Hermione insisted firmly. "We have to go out there and stop them, and try to warn the others. Students are at risk, Theo."

Theo was about to agree with her, before a nauseated look came over his face. "Fenrir is here," he said, breathing out deeply. It had been months since he'd seen the creature that had changed him, but he was certainly unprepared to meet him again. Theo looked scared, the muscles in his jaw tense as he kept a tenuous hold on his self-control.

Hermione squeezed his hand, hoping to be reassuring. "Then it's even more reason for us to go out there," she whispered. "Think of what he could do to everyone, especially if there is no one here to hold him back."

Theo took a deep breath before nodding, agreeing to fight alongside her, even if it seemed foolish and certain to end in their deaths. He pulled her down for a searing kiss, before drawing his own wand, hand on the handle.

The commotion in the hallway intensified and Hermione could hear spells zinging off of the stone in the corridor. Her heart soared when she realized what it was. "The Order is here!" she told him, proudly. "Real aurors - we won't be on our own Theo." Bolstered by the knowledge that they would be in good company, Hermione turned the handle of the door for him, stepping out into the hallway.

Her eyes widened while she took in the scene. Malfoy was standing near the entrance to the Room of Requirement, watching as a handful of Death Eaters lead by Yaxley were fighting with the Order and some members of Dumbledore's Army. Hermione's heart clenched in her chest, wondering when they had shown up, and wondering how she'd missed the memo. Guilt flooded her body and she wondered if she'd been too distracted by Theo, and had been left out of crucial planning. Hermione Granger couldn't just sit by, even when she had a special person in her life.

Remus and Tonks were fighting side by side in tandem, moving together beautifully and so in sync. Hermione was reminded of Remus's off-hand comment about the young auror in his letter and wondered if Remus had a mate as well. Kingsley Shacklebolt was fighting tooth and nail against a reckless Thorfinn Rowle, who was casting Killing Curses at anything that moved, but winning. Bellatrix Lestrange was urgently pulling on Draco's sleeve, trying to get him to follow her _somewhere_.

Upon seeing Hermione and Theo run up into the fray, Malfoy locked eyes with Theo, staring at them in shock, his eyes dropping to where their hands were still joined. Again, Hermione could feel her belly twist in nervousness, wondering if Draco had known about Theo's entanglement with her and if she was pulling him away from his own friends.

Before they could really aid in the fighting, Malfoy was pulling something out of his pocket and throwing it on the ground. Hermione gasped when the corridor was filled with a thick black smoke. _Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder_ , she thought to herself, miserably, knowing that this was certainly not going to help anyone. There was the sound of a body hitting the floor and Hermione prayed that Rowle hadn't been able to kill one of their number.

Blinking, she tried to peer through the darkness, but was unable to see anything at all. Holding onto Theo's hand like a lifeline, she was grateful that he hadn't let her go, knowing that she would be utterly adrift without him. Theo must have been able to see a little bit better than her, though, because he was wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her away from the squabble. "Draco is getting away," he whispered fervently. "We have to go after him before he does something stupid."

There was an urgency in his voice that made her heart clench for him. Theo didn't want to believe that his friend was beyond saving yet, and for Theo's sake, she hoped that he was right about Malfoy. Letting her feet follow his lead, Hermione blindly stumbled through the corridor hoping to find a bit of clean air.

She was thankful when the powder began to dissipate and she was able to see the floor in front of her again. Looking around, Hermione was certain that she wasn't familiar with this part of the castle. "Do you know which way we're going?" she asked Theo, hoping that he did.

He made a noise that did not inspire much hope for her. "It's a bit hard to follow their scent with the powder," he explained, pulling her along behind him.

Theo skidded to a stop when he turned the corner, causing Hermione to run into his back. "Theo?" she asked, timidly, wondering what it was that had made him stop so suddenly. Stepping out from behind him, her heart dropped when she saw that Fenrir Greyback was blocking their path.

"Hello pup," he said, giving Theo a feral grin. "I've been longing to chat with you again since this summer. And you've brought us a snack. How thoughtful."

"I can't say the same for you, Greyback," Theo growled out, barely having a handle on his anger. "If I never had to see your face again, I could die happy."

"Oh, don't be like that," Fenrir taunted him. "You know that your place is with us, with the Dark Lord. We can bring you to him tonight, with Malfoy, and you will be handsomely rewarded."

"I'm not going to go with you," Theo bit out, still standing between Fenrir and Hermione, hoping to shield her from the older werewolf.

"Is it because of the mudblood?" Greyback asked, cocking his head to one side. "Because we could bring her with. Maybe share her? Is she as good as she smells?" he asked, making an obscene gesture towards Hermione that had her gasping in indignation.

"Shut up about her," Theo snarled, grasping his wand tighter in his hand. "Don't even _look_ at her."

At that, Fenrir's eyes were widening in surprise. "My little pup has found his mate," he said proudly, showing off glistening teeth. "Then, you should understand that you belong with me, with my pack more than ever, Nott. I could show you the way of our kind, somethings that you will never be able to learn from anyone else."

The words were lucrative, but the source meant that it was a non-starter. There was no way in hell that Hermione would consent to go with Greyback, and she knew that Theo would be even more resistant, even if he wanted to learn more. Turning his head to give her a panicked look, Theo shoved her away from him. "Go, Hermione," he instructed. "I will handle Greyback."

"But, Theo-"

"No," he commanded, giving her an imperious look that told her he would not be argued with in the slightest. "Go, now, and I will find you afterwards."

While it pained her to leave Theo's side, she knew that he was capable enough to handle himself in the school. Running away, she did so only with the knowledge that she was going to get Theo help. She ran back in the direction that she had come from, and was glad to see that the Death Eaters were in retreat, heading down the grand marble staircase, blasting things as they went. Bellatrix cackled all the way that she went, not at all bothered by the spells that went whizzing by her head.

Malfoy was tucked under Professor Snape's wing as they lead the charge, Harry hot on their heels. Hermione gasped, knowing that she needed to help her friend, but that Theo needed help, too.

"Remus!" she called when she made it to the bottom of the staircase. "Please, you've got to help me. Fenrir Greyback has a student trapped up in a corridor. It's Theo Nott, Remus, you have to help him, please," she begged, tugging on his sleeve.

The name Fenrir Greyback would have been enough to get Remus to pause, but the look in her eyes must have clinched it for him. "Is he..?" Remus trailed off, needing confirmation to a question that he already knew the answer to.

"Yes," Hermione said, nodding furiously. "He's mine." It was all the explanation that was needed between the two of them.

Remus gave her a hard, pitying look, but nodded anyway. "Go find Harry," he instructed, clapping her on the shoulder. "He needs your help."

Hermione didn't need to be told twice, running out onto the grounds and into the summer air. Harry was still chasing after the Death Eaters that left, but not landing anything. By the time that she reached his side, Harry was sobbing.

And Dumbledore was dead.


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I honestly can't believe we are already in the second half of this story, but we have a lot more story to tell. I am so glad that you are enjoying their relationship so far! You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-one and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-two in a few days!

* * *

Remus had met Hermione outside the pub just like he'd promised he would in the last letter that she had sent. She wasn't entirely sure if Remus would even help her, but she hadn't had anyone else to turn to, and there was a definite shift in their relationship ever since he learned the truth about Theo.

She wiped furiously at the tears on her cheeks while she stood up when she saw her former professor approaching. "Thank you for coming, Remus," she said, letting the older man pull her in for a hug. "I wasn't sure if you'd come."

"Of course," he said, wrapping a protective arm around her shoulders. "Let's have a pint and talk it over before I take you back," he said sternly. "Theo's already been going spare enough, I don't know if he will be able to stand seeing you so upset when you first arrive, too."

Feeling too upset to argue with him at that moment, Hermione agreed, shuffling into the dingy neighborhood pub that had been around the corner from her parents' home longer than the house had been there. She found a seat easily enough, and took the pint that Remus offered her when he came back. Drinking deeply, she doubted that it would do anything to numb the pain that had settled in her heart.

"So, it's done?" Remus asked her, cautiously.

Hermione nodded, unable to say the words out loud.

After Dumbledore's funeral, Remus had pulled her aside to chat about their plans. He had spoken to Theo at length after Fenrir Greyback had fled the castle leaving the young wizard unharmed but confused. Remus promised that he would take the young werewolf in to a safehouse after school ended. There was no way that Theo could return home to his father after Malfoy had seen her with him. They just couldn't trust the other boy not to reveal what he knew about Theo's involvement with Hermione. But, Remus had also warned her that her parents were in danger, simply for being related to her. Hermione gravely nodded, telling Remus that she had been thinking of a plan as the semester had ticked by.

"I'm not Dumbledore, Hermione," Remus had said, sternly, giving her a hard look. "I won't tell you not to do it like Albus would have. You need to do whatever it takes to protect them. They need to be sent away."

The plan to obliviate any memory that they had of her had come slipping out of Hermione's lips while Remus listened on, carefully assessing the merits. "Do you think you can do it?" he had asked her, knowing that the only flaw in the plan was her ability to follow through.

"I'll do it," Hermione had promised, telling him that she would need his help once it was done.

But, now that it was done and her parents had no recollection that they had ever had a daughter to begin with, just the burning desire to move to Australia, Hermione wished that she hadn't been so resolute. It felt nearly soul-crushing to know that she wouldn't see her parents again.

"You made the right decision, Hermione," Remus said gently, taking a sip from his own pint. "I know that it doesn't feel like it right now, but it is."

"How can you be so sure?" she asked, desperate for something to absolve her of her guilt. "I didn't even _ask_ them what they would have wanted. I _violated_ their minds."

"Hermione, this is not the first war that I've been through," Remus reminded her sternly, looking much older than his thirty-six years. "They will not stop at anything to hurt us. I hate to tell you this, but you are even more of a target than you already were because of Theo. Theo believes that Greyback knows that you are his mate and...it's put you in a very precarious position if that's true."

She swallowed thickly, knowing that Remus was right. It _was_ the right decision to send her parents away, but it wouldn't stop her from mourning their loss. And, it was good to know that she had Remus to support her. It was something that she wasn't going to be able to tell Harry or Ron. They just wouldn't understand. She hoped that Theo would understand, too, but she wasn't sure if she was ready to tell him either.

"How has he been?" Hermione asked, staring down at the remnants of the beer in her pint. How had she drank it quite so quickly, she wondered? "Theo?"

Remus smiled at her. "He's been good. I don't think he particularly likes living in the safe house with _me_ , but he's safe at least," he explained to her. "He's very eager to be reunited with you."

Hermione cocked her head to the side. "Is Tonks your mate, Remus?" she asked, a question that had been on her mind, ever since she had seen them fighting together at Hogwarts.

A sappy smile came over his face, and Hermione knew without a doubt that he was desperately in love with Tonks, no matter what he said. "No, she is not my mate. Not every werewolf has one, like I said, and even fewer find theirs," he explained, his voice barely more than a whisper, not wanting to tip off any of the other afternoon patrons to their discussion. "But we were married earlier this summer."

"Congratulations," Hermione said, feeling true joy for her former professor. Meanwhile, her heart skipped a beat with the suggestion that being someone's mate was somehow _more_ significant than being someone's wife. While she couldn't imagine _not_ being with Theo at this point, Hermione really hadn't considered the idea that they might get married at some point in the future. Despite all of their intimacies, they hadn't even discussed the depths of their feelings with one another yet. Hermione knew that she was falling in love with the Slytherin, but, did he feel the same about her?

When they both had finished their drinks, Remus stood. "This is a conversation best had somewhere else," he said, knowing that talk of werewolves and mates was dangerous in a muggle pub. "Do you have everything you need?"

Hermione pressed a hand against the little beaded bag at her hip. "Yes, I've got everything that I need right here," she told him.

Remus took her arm as they walked down the alley behind the pub, before ducking behind the dumpster so that he could side-along them to their destination. Hermione was surprised to see a cheery looking little cabin surrounded by lush evergreen woods. Smoke was billowing out of the chimney, even though it was at the height of the summer.

She walked in behind Remus, longing for a look at her boyfriend for the first time since they had left Hogwarts. Theo was on her before the door was even closed behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her body flush against his. His lips found hers in a possessive kiss, immediately invading her mouth, pulling her lower lip between his teeth. Hermione moaned into him, having missed being with him.

Theo stumbled them backwards, until she was pressed against the door, reminding her of the first time that they had kissed. She was also reminded, very rudely, that she was standing in her former professor's home. Pulling away from the kiss, she groaned when Theo pressed open mouthed kisses down her jaw and towards her shoulder, sucking at the skin.

Delving her fingers into his hair, Hermione tried to pull him back. "Theo," she croaked, wanting nothing more than to retreat somewhere more private with him. "It's barely been over a week."

"Missed you witch," he said pressing his face against the crook of her shoulder, but making no move to let her go.

"Theo, Remus and Tonks," she said, embarrassed, feeling him press his cock against her belly eagerly. It was far more demonstrative than he typically was.

Remus cleared his throat awkwardly. Hermione opened her eyes and saw that her former professor was doing his best to look anywhere but at the two teenagers in the room. "It's alright, Hermione, it's instinctual," Remus said, awkwardly. "He is just trying to re-establish a bond with you."

After several more tense seconds, Theo finally gave her some space, but kept an arm slung around her waist, tightly. "Sorry, Hermione," he said, sheepishly. "Can't help it."

"It's fine," she said, rubbing her cheek against his chest. "I missed you, too." Being with Theo lifted her spirits massively, and she wondered when he had begun to play such an outsized role in her happiness. She was still sad about her parents, but she knew that she could get through it with her mate at her side.

Turning to Remus, with flaming cheeks, she couldn't stop herself from asking. "I didn't realize that Theo and I had...established a _bond_ yet." Everything they had read up to that point suggested that the act of mating was nothing short of sexual intercourse, and they hadn't reached that bridge yet, owing to the fact that they were unsure of the specifics.

"Well, that would be a mating bond," Remus said, his cheeks probably redder than hers were. "But that doesn't mean that a bond doesn't exist between you. You've still been with each other a lot, and his wolf will have become attached to you anyway. He sees you as pack." Clearing his throat and eager to be out of the awkward conversation, Remus excused himself. "I am going to go let Tonks know that everything went smoothly today."

Theo brought her to sit on one of the shabby little couches. "I know what the mating entails now," he said, not bothering to disguise the lust that he felt for her, his eyes drinking her in heatedly.

"Oh?" Hermione asked, surprised that he'd figured it out on his own. "Did Remus tell you?" she asked, cautiously, thinking that she would just about die from mortification if he had.

Scratching at his scruffy beard, Theo shook his head. "No, but I've been having _very_ vivid and explicit dreams," he said softly, letting his fingers trace along the skin on the inside of her wrist. "I think that my wolf was trying to push me in the right direction. I'll tell you more about it when we go to bed tonight."

"Go to bed?" she asked, feeling a bit stupid. When she agreed to move into the safe house with Remus earlier that summer, she hadn't bothered asking what the sleeping arrangements would be, thinking that the older man would want to prevent Hermione and Theo from getting up to anything that they shouldn't be.

"You'll be sharing with me," Theo said victoriously. "There's only two bedrooms, and it took some arguing, but Lupin finally saw things my way. I should give him a taste of his own medicine."

"Hm?" Hermione asked, unsure of what he was referencing.

"He and the auror put up silencing spells," Theo explained with a grimace. "But it's not quite good enough with my hearing. They go at it all the time."

Smacking him on the arm, Hermione was unable to suppress a gasp. "Theo! I didn't want to know that!"

"I didn't want to know it either," Theo countered, cheekily. "But if I have to live with it, you do, too. Mate," he said, a big goofy grin on his face, so happy to be reunited with her at last. "There is something else, too. The auror is pregnant. But, I'm not saying anything until they realize it themselves."

"That's exciting!" Hermione said, before the reality of it set in. "Oh, actually, it does make things a bit difficult doesn't it?" She wondered how long it would take the new couple to figure out that they had a little one on the way themselves.

"Yes," Theo agreed darkly. "But, it's nothing that they can't handle together." He said it as if he needed to believe it.

Hermione grabbed his hand, giving it a tight squeeze. "Exactly. Together."


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am really glad that you liked the previous chapter - they sure are needy for one another, aren't they? I know a lot of you are excited for the mating and we will get there...eventually at least, haha! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-two and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-three soon!

* * *

Despite all of her protests, even Molly Weasley could not stop the reunion of Hermione and the boys after Harry had been brought to the Burrow. Remus had insisted that Ron and Harry come over to his cottage, privately knowing that it was not going to be an easy conversation to have, especially when they were unaware of Theo's presence. He was still a young werewolf, so keeping him in a familiar environment would hopefully keep things more manageable.

Bill, staying at home while they prepared for his wedding to Fleur Delacour, had finally offered to go with the two boys. Tonks also promised to be there the whole time in case something should go wrong, but really, nothing would be able to get them, even as the Death Eaters grew bolder.

Hermione had been a bundle of nerves waiting for them to show up. While it had been a nice reprieve to be reunited with Theo, she was not blind to the fact that they were far from safe. With Dumbledore dead, now, Hermione knew that they were unlikely to return to Hogwarts, especially not with Snape as Headmaster. Not to mention the task that Harry had been hinting at before the term was finished. Further, she knew that it was time to come clean about her relationship with Theo to Ron and wasn't looking forward to the fallout that was bound to happen.

When the day finally arrived for their meeting, Theo had done to best to reassure her frayed nerves. "No matter what they think, just know that I still think you are a brilliant witch," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple. "And I will still want you desperately, no matter what Ron Weasley thinks of you."

The boys arrived via floo. Upon walking through the fireplace, they immediately wrapped Remus in tight hugs. They had seen one another when they moved Harry from his Aunt and Uncle's home - something that _she_ hadn't been invited to participate in - but it was still good to see a familiar face. "Thank Merlin for you, Remus," Ron said cheerfully. "I was going to go spare if I had to sit in the Burrow and listen to Mum's fretting for another minute."

Ron was the first to notice Theo sitting on the couch, a long arm thrown possessively across Hermione's shoulders, lounging back like he owned the place. The redhead drew his wand, not bothered that Hermione was also in his line of fire. "What the bloody hell is he doing here?" he demanded. "We can't trust a Slytherin snake! Whatever he's told you is a lie! He was probably sent here to spy on us."

"Theo is _not_ a spy," Hermione insisted, standing up from her spot on the couch. She raised her own wand, ready to defend her mate if need be. "He is part of the reason you were asked to come here today, but if you can't sit down and discuss this like rational adults than maybe you should just leave."

Hermione watched as Harry put his hand on Ron's shoulder. "Let's just hear them out, Ron," he said, cautiously.

It did not go as planned. Ron turned at narrowed his eyes at Harry. "This isn't a surprise to you," he accused. "You _knew_ about Nott?"

"I tried to tell you that Hermione was seeing someone," Harry said awkwardly. "It's not my fault that you didn't believe me."

The look on Ron's face was thunderous while he contemplated his next move. "Fine, why don't you both try to explain this to me? Try to explain why my two best friends _betrayed_ me!" He sat down heavily in the chair across from Hermione, arms crossed against his chest, rolling his wand in his hand idly. He looked like a petulant child.

Hermione sighed and sat back down again, giving Theo an apologetic look. The Slytherin's dark blue eyes were trained on Ron's body, completely on edge. "I didn't mean to keep Theo from you Ron," she said glumly. "But if you haven't forgotten, you were not exactly the best friend either this year. You completely ignored Harry and I for some of the year because of Lavender."

Ron scoffed and rolled his eyes at her. "At least Lavender isn't a Slytherin."

"You're right, Theo is a Slytherin," Hermione said finally. "But I don't care. He is still special to me...more than special, really." She took a deep breath while she prepared to drop a huge bombshell on the pair of them. She and Theo had talked extensively about what they wanted to share, but they knew there was no way to get around coming clean about being mates. Theo told her that it would next to impossible to let her go off wherever they were planning on going without coming with her. "I already told Harry, but...Theo is a werewolf. He was changed last summer by Fenrir Greyback."

"What the hell?" Ron exploded, staring at Harry, even angrier than before. "You've known this for how long exactly? And you were just going to let Hermione be with a dangerous werewolf without telling me?"

"Watch what you are saying, Ron," Bill cautioned from his silent sentry.

"I didn't mean it like _that_ ," Ron whined, knowing that he was treading on dangerous ground by saying that, especially knowing that Bill himself had been attacked, but not infected by Fenrir Greyback.

Hermione cleared her throat primly. "Yes, Harry confronted us after spying on me with the Marauder's Map," she explained. "And we decided that it would be best to tell you after school was out, so that you'd have more time to process it."

"And what about you?" Ron asked, completely ignoring what Hermione had to say. Instead, he was now totally focused on Theo. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself? Don't you see that you are putting Hermione in a dangerous situation?"

"Of course I see that," Theo snapped, finally speaking for the first time. Hermione could see the muscles working in his jaw and she knew that he was trying to keep control of his temper. "I agonize over it every day. But, I don't know if you've realize it or not, your friend can be very stubborn and persistent. She wouldn't leave me alone, and well, I've found it impossible to stay away from her, too."

"Merlin, don't you have _any_ self control?" Ron wondered out loud.

Knowing that she needed to cut in before things got too out of control, Hermione knew that she had to tell them she was Theo's mate, too. "It's not that simple," she said firmly, gaining the attention of all three boys. "There is something else. There is no easy way to say it really, but...I am Theo's mate."

Things were silent for a moment, but once everything seemed to sink in, Harry and Ron immediately started yelling, asking how she could keep it from her. "Come on, Hermione, he must be _lying_ to you," Ron insisted, furiously, perhaps realizing that Theo was a much more permanent fixture in their lives now. "He's just trying to trick you."

"Yeah, there is no way that mates really are a thing, are they Remus?" Harry asked, turning to look at their former professor with a question in his eyes.

"I'm happy to tell you that mates are real, Harry," Remus said, sternly. "They are rare, but they are considered quite a gift for a werewolf."

"It's not possible," Ron said, looking at Hermione desperately. "He can't be your mate, Hermione. You and I were always meant to be together." He blushed when the words spilled out of his mouth, but he didn't make any moves to take it back, either.

The thought of her with Ron seemed too much for Theo to stand. "That's enough," he growled, standing up. "I can't listen to another minute of this," he said, before storming off to his own room, not even faltering when Hermione called after him.

Feeling tears prick at the corner of her eyes, Hermione knew that this had really gone much worse than she'd imagined. She wanted to go after Theo, to promise him that nothing was going to come between them, but she knew that she needed to finish discussing things with Harry and Ron first.

"How could you keep this from us, Hermione?" Harry asked, sounding hurt. "This is going to change _everything_. How are we supposed to...when...is he going to have to come with us?"

"Don't act like you are blameless in this, Harry Potter!" she shouted at him, feeling her tears spill over onto her cheeks. "I'm not the only one who has been keeping secrets. How could you not tell me the plan with Dumbledore's Army the night that Dumbledore died? I wouldn't have even known if anything was going on if I hadn't stumbled into the fighting!"

Harry's cheeks turned red in shame. "I wasn't sure...I wasn't sure if we could trust Nott," he revealed, looking down at his lap. "I knew that you wouldn't be able to stop from telling him. He said he was still friends with Malfoy, Hermione. I couldn't chance him tipping Malfoy off!"

Hermione took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to get through the pain of him not having faith in her. Didn't he know what she would do to Theo - mate or not - if he were to do something like that to her? Hadn't he remembered Marietta Edgecomb or Rita Skeeter? She could be vindictive when she needed to be. "I don't appreciate being left out of the loop or ignored," she said with finality. "If you want my help, Harry, you need to tell me _everything_."

Harry seemed to recognize that this was the truth. "Fine, from now on, we will all be honest with one another. Deal?" he asked, looking between Ron and Hermione.

"Deal," Hermione said readily, knowing that dealing with Voldemort was really bigger than them at this point.

"Fine," Ron agreed. "But don't expect me to just be cool with you and Nott, Hermione. I still say that he can't be trusted, and I will be keeping an eye on him."

Harry rolled his eyes at Ron's still possessive tone. "Let's get down to business, then," he said, pressing his hands together, before turning over to look at Remus and Bill. "Could you guys give us some space?" he asked.

Bill and Remus looked between one another before nodding eventually, stepping outside so that that trio could speak alone. "I don't really know if I should be keeping this from the Order," Harry said, cautiously. "But, Dumbledore said it was imperative I keep it to myself, not even to tell you two." He thought it over for a few more seconds, before finally deciding to open up to his oldest friends.

Hermione was on the edge of her seat as the whole story came pouring out of Harry. He told them everything, about Slughorn and Voldemort and how they had gone to look for a horcrux, one of seven they thought that Voldemort had made. Defeating the dark wizard had always seemed like an insurmountable task, but learning the truth made things seem even more impossible than ever. Hermione's stomach twisted in nerves as she tried to figure out how they were going to find them when they didn't even know what they were.

"Well, we know one of them is Slytherin's locket," Harry supplied, showing them the fake and passing the little note inside to Hermione to read over. "Dumbledore reckoned that the Diary I destroyed in second year was another, and he took care of a ring. But it still leaves five to find and destroy."

Letting her fingertips slide across the glassy surface of the locket, Hermione knew that it was a step in the right direction, but they still had a lot to figure out. And, as quickly as possible. Pursing her lips together, she racked her brain trying to figure out who R.A.B. really was. In the end, it wouldn't matter how difficult or impossible they found the task they had been left with.

They had no other choice but to complete it.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I am sorry I haven't gotten through reviewer responses yet, but my computer is officially bricked and it takes me a little longer to do them on the phone. I will get to them, though, I promise! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-three and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-four soon!

Hermione had made up Harry and Ron's poor behavior to Theo by spending the rest of the afternoon wrapped up in his arms in his bedroom. She could kiss him for hours, it felt like, completely wrapped in his warm embrace. He was so strong, and she got a little thrill knowing that he could do whatever he wanted with her. She let him leave love bites up and down her neck, knowing that he was doing it as some kind of way to show that she _belonged_ to him, loving the way that the red marks contrasted with her pale skin.

But, no matter how hard she clung to his strong shoulders, or rocked her center against his firm thigh, Theo seemed to have the self control of a saint, never letting things go further. Hermione was desperate for him to just touch her _down there_ , her center aching, wanting to know what those long fingers would feel like against her wetness. And she longed to see what he looked like, completely bare.

"You know I don't care about what Ron said," Hermione whispered to him one evening when they were tucked under the covers together, her head pressed against his bare chest. "I don't want you to _control_ yourself around me. I...I would tell you if things were going too fast."

"It's not about that, Hermione," he'd murmured in return, before pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "We'll talk about it soon, but I can't handle it...not so close to the full moon."

She sighed in understanding, knowing that he was still learning how to cope with things. His emotions were always close to the surface, his wolf possessive and demanding, during his time of the months. "What will you and Remus do?" Hermione asked, wondering how things would work with two werewolves in such close proximity. There had been wolfsbane, barely enough for the two of them to split, but enough to get them through another month.

"He thinks we should spend it outside the cottage for the auror's safety," Theo said, his fingers running up her spine gently. "And, he figures that I might enjoy the freedom. I've never had a transformation where I could run around."

"That sounds nice," Hermione agreed, even though a small part of her knew that she would miss having him with her during the full moon. She always felt comforted to know that he was only a few rooms away while they had been at Hogwarts. But, even she preferred to be with him during his change, taking comfort from the knowledge that he was wrapped up beside her.

"I guess so," Theo said, his voice a low rumble in his chest. "But, if I am honest, I will probably just spend the whole night sitting beneath your window."

Hermione felt her breath catch in her throat, feeling her heart swell with the knowledge that, given the choice, he would want to be with her, too. Their relationship seemed a bit like a foregone conclusion at sometimes...after all, they were magically drawn together by Theo's werewolf biology. But, at the same time, there was so much left unsaid between the two of them, about what their relationship _meant_ to one another. In her case, her crush had grown wildly out of control, the flames fanned higher with each kiss and touch, and she knew that she was coming to care deeply for him. She wanted to tell him how much he meant to her, but something was always holding her back. He said that he had liked her before the change, but just how much of his feelings were only caused by her being his mate?

Instead of opening up to him, Hermione let the soft feel of his fingertips against her skin help her drift off into sleep.

When the morning came, Hermione woke up before Theo did. Looking down at his face, she could see the telltale dark circles forming under his eyes like they always did this close to the moon. He was tired, needing all the rest that he could get, and so Hermione let him sleep. Slipping out of the bed and into a robe, she tiptoed out of the room, hoping not to wake him.

Remus was waiting for her in the kitchen, staring into a half-drunk cup of tea, looking rather unlike himself. "Good morning, Remus," she greeted him softly, before pouring herself a cup and sitting in the chair across from him.

"Hermione," he said, his green eyes lingering on the fresh set of marks on her neck. "Sleep well?"

She blushed at the implication and pressed a hand to her neck, covering them even though he had already seen them. "He gets very...demonstrative this close to the moon," she said quietly, wondering why she was trying to explain it to the other werewolf. He should be well aware of it himself. "It's instinctual, for him to broadcast his claim on me."

He didn't bother hiding his frown from her. "It's not just the moon, Hermione," he said, shaking his head. "It's a combination of things. The fact that he hasn't claimed you yet probably weighs heavily on his wolf."

"I don't - it isn't as if we are waiting for any particular time," she babbled. Theo had never brought up what claiming her, mating her would entail, even though he knew the method now. She never brought it up, either, a small part of her worried that he was putting off tying himself to her for the rest of their lives as long as possible. After all, they weren't even eighteen yet, and well, what if he didn't fancy being with her forever? It seemed a painful possibility.

"I'm glad that he hasn't tried to pressure you into it," Remus answered, not looking happy about it. "It's not something that you should take lightly. Just because you are his mate doesn't mean that _you_ need to submit to him, Hermione. It's smart for Theo to be cautious and not push you into something that you'll regret."

Hermione bristled at his tone, understanding that Remus was _not_ happy with her and Theo's relationship. Did Remus think that Theo was a traitor or a spy like Harry and Ron seemed to? "He isn't pressuring me to do _anything_ ," she insisted. "If anything, I'm the one who is always charging full steam ahead."

"Please be smart about this, Hermione," he pleaded with her. "I know that right now things are serious, but you need to look at the bigger picture. Harry needs all of our help and Theo is an unneeded complication."

"Theo is not a _complication,_ Remus," she said sternly, surprised that he of all people would be suggesting something like that. "There is no reason why he can't come with me when I go with Harry."

He shook his head. "You aren't thinking clearly, Hermione," he scolded. "Theo is a very young werewolf, and that means everything is so much closer to the surface. His emotions will be much more difficult to control. I am worried about what could happen with such high tensions. You saw how he reacted when we had the boys over to talk things through."

"I _saw_ Theo showing remarkable control while Ron maligned him!" she countered, raising her voice in frustration. Remus of all people should have been able to understand where Theo was coming from, especially when Ron suggested that he was just using his condition to try and trick her into something nefarious.

"I'm not saying that he hasn't been put in a difficult situation-"

"Then _what_ exactly are you trying to say, Remus?" she demanded, feeling very annoyed with the older man. She always felt a connection with her former professor, seeing as he had been the intelligent bookworm of his friend group as well. She was finding it difficult to reconcile that he couldn't see things her way.

"Maybe you shouldn't go with Harry, Hermione. You might be asking too much of Theo by dragging him along with you," Remus said, his shoulders drooping when he finally got the words out. "I am trying to say that it isn't the smartest decision to bring a brand new werewolf into a high pressure situation like that."

Hermione stopped for a minute and let his words sink in. She knew that he was trying to be helpful, but she doubted that Theo would appreciate it being suggested that he couldn't do everything that he could before, especially when there was no evidence to back up the claim. And, in any case, it was pointless to ask because she couldn't just abandon Harry now. "You said it before, Remus. Harry needs our help. I can't let him and Ron go off on their own."

"I'm not asking you to," he said, his eyes shifting guiltily. "Let me go in your place, Hermione. Let me go with Harry and help him with whatever he needs. I have more experience than you do anyway. You and Theo can stay here and help."

She stared at him dumbfounded. "Remus...you can't possibly be suggesting that you would leave Tonks here without you?" she asked, anger on the other woman's behalf bubbling up inside of her. "She's your wife! She's going to have _your_ baby. She needs _you._ "

To his disappointment, Remus's cheeks colored pink, revealing that he had been planning on abandoning Tonks and their unborn child. "She doesn't need me, Hermione. Nymphadora and the baby are better off without me with them. I'm a werewolf...the stigma alone would be astronomical."

Hermione stood up suddenly, nostrils flaring in fury. "How can you even say that, Remus?" she demanded, knowing that he was being irrational. "You know that Tonks doesn't care about those things. She would rather have you than anyone else. She _chose_ you."

Remus had no response to that, instead just stared into his tea mug looking guilty and embarrassed. "I think it would be better if I left and went with Harry-"

"And Harry!" Hermione continued her tirade. "If you even _think_ that he would let you come with and leave your child behind because you think they are better off without you. Harry would be _furious,_ Remus. Harry knows what it's like to grow up without a family and to hear that you would _willingly_ leave them behind would be...nothing short of betrayal in his eyes."

He pressed his hands against his face, but he still had nothing to say for himself.

She stared at him, someone that she looked up to, and was struck with the knowledge that sometimes the people who are supposed to have the answers still make mistakes. But she would be damned if she was going to let Remus walk away from Tonks when she needed him most. Knowing that she couldn't spend another minute with him without saying something that might seriously damage their friendship with him, she banished her cup to the sink.

"Thank you for the advice about, Theo," she said tersely. "I think that he has made _many_ improvements and will be able to keep his volatile emotions in check. But I will still think on your _concerns_." With that, she turned and left to return to the room that she shared with Theo.

When she found him, he was pulling on a pair of jeans - a rare muggle invention that he had come to love since moving in with Remus at the beginning of the summer - he turned to face her. Seeing him bare-chested, all lean muscle and smooth skin save for a set of parallel scars under his ribcage on the right side, nearly made her forget her anger. "Is everything alright? I couldn't hear your discussion, but it was clear that you were unhappy," he said, pulling her into a hug, needing to keep his mate happy.

"Let's go for a walk," Hermione said, knowing that she needed to put some space between between her and Remus. "He is just throwing himself a pity party...he is nervous about being a dad and being generally unreasonable." A bit of fresh air would do them both good.


	24. Chapter 24

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I got a new laptop today! Yay! And I think I am all caught up on reviewer responses. Thanks for bearing with me. I am so pleased that we have reached 1,000 reviews - I am so blown away by the response to this story! It means so so much to know that you are all enjoying this story! I know a lot of you are eager for Theo and Hermione to get on with it, and I promise their relationship will continue to progress. I think you will really like this chapter :) You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-four and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-five soon!

* * *

Theo followed behind Hermione, trying to give her a fair distance while still staying close enough that he would be able to protect her. She was stomping around so fast, he knew that he would need to begin to guide her so that they didn't leave the safety of the wards. He wondered what it was that Lupin had said to her to make her so furious. He hadn't been able to hear their words clearly enough while he was getting ready, but he wouldn't ask until she calmed down a bit. His mate was strong-willed and fiesty, but he had no desire to have her ire turned on him.

When they had been walking for half an hour, Hermione began to deflate, looking as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. "Do you want to talk about it?" he asked her, knowing that she would feel better if she had someone to shoulder the burden with.

Hermione turned around to face him, looking incredibly beautiful in the sunlight. He could see the smattering of freckles that she had across the bridge of her nose and the flecks of gold in her irises. Her hair was voluminous and wild, making him want to burying his hands in those strands and pull her in for a kiss -

He stopped himself from letting his thoughts run rampant this close to his transformation. He already wanted her more than he'd ever wanted a witch before in his life - holding her close to him every night making him ache - but when it was so close to the Full Moon, he had even less impulse control, more desire to show her that she was _his_ , than normally. But, he knew that he couldn't live with himself if he pushed Hermione into something that she didn't actually want, didn't fully understand.

"Remus is...he's always felt that he is somehow _less_ because he is a werewolf," she said, sounding helpless and annoyed. "He thinks that he doesn't deserve happiness, and with Tonks being pregnant..." she had tears in her eyes when she trailed off. "He wanted to _abandon_ his wife and child to go on the run with Harry and Ron, because he thinks they are better off without them."

Needing to comfort her, Theo crossed the distance between them and pulled her into a hug. "I don't know what to say," he said, letting her cry bitterly against his shoulder.

"You don't feel that way, do you?" she asked timidly, looking up into his eyes, searching for the truth. "You wouldn't try to abandon me because you think I deserve better than a werewolf? Because you know _I_ don't think of it that way."

Theo winced at her question. "That's a difficult question to answer, Hermione," he said, cautiously.

"Remus tried to tell me to be _careful_ with you," she continued on, in a little tirade. "Said that we should stay behind because our relationship is too fragile and too dangerous around Harry and Ron. But I don't see why I should have to-"

"Maybe you _should_ be careful with me," Theo said, cutting her off suddenly. "You are quick to assign devious reasoning to Remus's words, but have you ever considered that he is only looking out for you? Trying to help you make an informed decision about your life?"

"How is that looking out for me?" she countered, nostrils flaring and her hands balling into ineffectual little fists at her side. "You are my _mate_ , Theo. We are pretty much a package deal now, so to ask me to try and put distance between us is abhorrent."

"You say that so confidently," he scoffed. "You are my mate. Do you even know what that means?" he questioned. Remus had spoken to him at length about not pushing Hermione into something that she didn't understand prior to her arrival at the safe house. Theo had to shove aside the feelings of resentment that bubbled up with the realization that Remus didn't trust him one bit, and instead tried to reassure himself that Remus was just looking out for Hermione's best interests.

Still, he'd hit at a large fear that Theo had. That Hermione would grow sick of him someday in the future, once the allure of having someone destined for her wore off, and she would resent him for forcing her into something that she didn't really want. Theo was sure that having had Hermione and then her wanting to leave would be far more painful than never having her in the first place. He'd wanted to give her as much space as possible to make the decision on her own, and so he'd held back on carrying through with the mating this far, even though it grated at his nerves.

Remus suggested that he let Hermione go off with Ron and Harry on her own so that she could make a clear choice if she wanted to be with him in the end. She would come back to him if she wanted to.

But his little Hermione wouldn't let it go. "Of course I don't know all of the particulars, Theo, but I know that we are bound together by this," she said, gesturing to the air between them wildly. "I feel so strongly about you sometimes I feel like I'm drowning and you are the only thing keeping me afloat."

Theo looked at her, wanting nothing more than to pull her into his arms and let her know how intoxicating her words were. Instead, he grit his teeth and forced himself to continue on with this uncomfortable conversation. "That's why Remus is warning you to be careful," he told her, honestly. "So you don't make a decision that you regret. Being unmated is causing a lot of...confusion."

"I don't feel confused," she snarled. "And if it's being unmated...then, I don't see what we are waiting for," she said, her confidence in what she was saying was belied by the bright pink blush on her cheeks at what she suggesting.

"We're so young, Hermione. Don't you ever worry that someday you will wake up and regret that you've thrown your life away on some Slytherin, and not just a Slytherin, but a werewolf at that?" he asked, knowing that he would have some reservations if it was the other way around. "Everything has happened so quickly...don't you ever take a moment to think things through?"

Immediately, Hermione looked hurt. "How can you ask me that?" she questioned softly. "Of course I've thought things through. I _know_ how serious this is, and I thought that you did, too. _That's_ why I've been working so hard to build a relationship with you."

"Don't-" he snarled, unable to bear the thought that she might only be doing everything that she'd been doing for _his_ benefit. That would be even worse...her seeing him like some kind of charity case. "Don't do this if you are feeling sorry for me," he demanded, before closing the distance between them, walking her back until she pressed against a tree trunk, trapped by his considerable height.

"I'm not, Theo, I-"

"I'm a Slytherin, Hermione and I'm very self-serving. I'm not like your _noble_ Remus who will keep trying to push you away once I've had you. So, think long and hard about it, Hermione. Be certain," he instructed her. "Because once we're mated, once you're _mine_ , I am never going to give you up," he whispered, deadly serious, enjoying the way that lust flitted across her face at his promise.

Unwilling to wait to hear her answer, Theo slanted his lips across her's in a kiss, one hand coming down to cup her jaw, holding her at the precise angle that he wanted. Pushing past her lips, he groaned when their tongues slid against one another. Hermione was open to him, surrendering to his unshakeable need to be in control, leading her. She tasted sweet, sweeter than nectar, and before he realized it, he was groaning, the noise rumbling in his chest. She felt _so good_.

He sighed, feeling her own fingers card through his hair, wrapping greedy arms around his neck, pulling him down to her. The flames of desire that were always burning in his chest were quickly growing into something more like a wildfire, and he could feel his cock throbbing between his legs. Knowing he should be embarrassed, he couldn't stop himself from grinding against her, wanting to show her just what she did to him.

She pushed at his shoulders, breaking away from their kiss with a gasp when she needed the air, but Theo couldn't stop touching her. One hand snaked up under her jumper, cupping her breast and rolling a hardened nipple against his thumb. He watched in awe as her head dropped back, baring her pale neck to him. Did she even know what that did to him? No, of course not. How could she?

Theo watched her face as her eyes settled on him, pupils wide and unfocused, so overcome by the way that he was playing with her body. He both cursed and blessed his enhanced sense of smell, able to tell just how aroused she was growing with each touch and caress. When she finally leveled her gaze on his, he could see more than just lust reflected in the brown depths. "I don't want you to give me up, Theo," she moaned. "Not ever."

His eyes slammed shut, and he dropped his face into the crook of her neck, eagerly nipping at the skin that she was showing off to him so prettily. Salazar, she was really made for him, wasn't she?

He knew that he couldn't mate her, not here and this close to the full moon. While he wouldn't stop pursuing her, he knew that he should give her more time to consider what it all meant. They needed to have a frank discussion about what it would mean for the two of them. Still, he would take her at her word that she wanted more with him.

Even if he wouldn't go all the way with her right now, that didn't mean that he wouldn't touch her at all. Bringing his hand down to the waistband of her jeans, he easily undid the snap and unzipped, having more familiarity now with muggle jeans. Greedily, he pressed his hands inside the fabric, on the inside of her knickers, feeling the hot wetness of her center for the first time. Shuddering, he ran his finger up and down her folds, stopping to pay particular attention to the little button at the top of her sex, before entering her with one finger.

"Oh, Theo," Hermione moaned, her head dropping back against the tree, eyes shut tight in pleasure. He thought that he could watch her this way for the rest of his life. He'd never seen a more enthralling sight. He quickly built up a steady push and pull, delighting in the way that her core clenched at his fingers, feeling himself become painfully hard. Using his other hand, he pressed his palm to the front of his jeans, groaning at how good the friction felt.

Hermione was an eager participant, rocking against his hand again and again, even when her legs began to shake. Theo pressed against her harder, holding her up, but it was quite a feat when he was nearly out of his own mind with desire. He could feel her hot puffs of breath against his ear and her fingers gripping into his shoulders tightly, but he didn't need that to know that she was close. He could already feel her fluttering around his finger and let a second join the first.

"Please," she whispered, begging so prettily for him.

Theo caught her mouth in another possessive kiss, needing her to know that he wanted every inch of her. He pressed his thumb to the top of her sex, circling against her clit in tight circles, swallowing up her moan of satisfaction when she was finally coming around him. He slowed down his movements, but didn't stop, guiding her through her orgasm.

Almost reflexively, he realized that he was grinding himself against her leg, unable to stop at how close he was himself. In another moment, he was coming himself, feeling lighter than a feather, far too gone to think about being embarrassed.

Time seemed to stand still as they stood out in the forest, clutching at one another, but eventually the sounds of the birds and the wind came filtering back. Theo pressed a brief kiss to her forehead, before grabbing his wand to clean the pair of them up.

Hermione was looking up at him with such unfiltered...well, no, love _couldn't_ be the right word...such unfiltered affection, that he felt his heart stutter in his chest. Her face was quickly transformed by a secretive, shy grin that he found himself eagerly returning. He reached out for her hand and took it, captivated by the disparity in their two sizes.

"We aren't done talking about this," she said, lazily. "I don't care how long it takes to convince you that I want to be your mate, Theo. I will keep trying until you understand."

He felt his heart warm at her promise.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I am so glad that you liked Theo and Hermione's little conversation. They still have some things to work through but we are getting there. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates, and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-five and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-six in a few days!

* * *

Mrs. Weasley had made no secret how unhappy she was to be hosting Hermione's new plus one to her eldest son's wedding, but Remus had explained, in as gentle of terms as possible, that it was a non-negotiable. If Theo couldn't go, Hermione wouldn't be going either. The mother of the groom had relented, but made no efforts to make the youngest Nott feel welcome in her home, huffing about Death Eaters the moment that the young couple arrived. Hermione hoped that Mrs. Weasley didn't think that there could be something between her and Ronald, still.

She had quickly put the kibosh on Hermione and Theo sharing a bed, though, insisting that he could bunk with Charlie in Percy's old room, while Hermione could share a room with Ginny like previously. There hadn't been much time to argue about it, because almost as soon as she had shown up at the Burrow, the Minister of Magic was as well, to dispense with Dumbledore's last will and testament. Theo had not been invited in and in fact Scrimgeour looked surprised to see him there at all. Hermione told him that he hadn't missed out on much, showing him the copy of the _Tales of Beedle the Bard_ that she'd received.

Then, they had been pulled apart in preparations for the wedding. Mr. Weasley _had_ been happy to have an additional wizard on hand to help raise the tent that the ceremony would be taking place in, and had recruited Theo to come help. Hermione had been pulled away to help with floral arranging, something she learned she did _not_ have a great skill at, before helping Ginny to get ready.

Hermione had never been to many weddings before, having been an only child without many cousins. The last one she had been to was her parent's old receptionist, but she'd been ten years old and hadn't really enjoyed the festivities. She was positive that the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour would put all the previous to shame, if only because it was to be a magical ceremony. And, it didn't hurt that this time she had an actual date for the wedding.

She had loved the somewhat awestruck look in his eyes when he saw her come down the stairs in her red dress. He looked smashing in his dress robes, too, though he had regrettably shaved the bit of scruff from his cheeks. They sat next to one another, hands clasped together, during the ceremony. Hermione had felt tears of joy prick at her eyes at the beauty of the ceremony, the love Bill and Fleur had for one another evident to everyone who had gathered.

The dinner and dancing afterwards had been far more awkward. Ron made no secret that he was unhappy to have a Slytherin there, let alone _with_ Hermione, and so Harry was left to play the intermediary between the four of them. It would have been fine, except he kept getting so distracted by Ginny that he was really quite useless. There had also been the awkward exchange with Viktor Krum, who made no secret that he was disappointed Hermione was not still single, but respected the clear signals that Theo was broadcasting that she was _his_ witch. She knew it was wrong, but she still got such a thrill at the way he would sling his arm around her waist, pulling her towards his chest when another suitor would intrude on them.

The only guest who had anything to say about a Nott's presence at a Weasley wedding was Ron's Aunt Muriel, who made a comment about how things had changed if Cantankerous Nott's - apparently an old school chum - grandson was _cavorting_ with a known muggleborn.

But in the end, the only thing that Hermione would remember of the wedding was Kingsley's patronus bursting in, giving the guests advanced warning of a coming Death Eater attack. People were apparating away left and right, but Hermione could only focus on finding Harry (well, and Ron), and getting him out of there as soon as possible. Theo hadn't left her side, and instead had his wand drawn, looking around wildly.

Grabbing the trio of boys' hands, the duty of apparating them to safety fell to Hermione. She _had_ been prepared for this after all. Once they were in the safety of muggle London, she gave them a change of clothes so they would blend in better. She didn't miss the red look on Ron's face when he saw how comfortable Theo was with muggle clothing.

After that, they had gone to a cafe to talk through their next moves. Theo had been a bundle of nervous energy since they had left, clearly agitated, but he kept his thoughts to himself, sighing and rolling his eyes when it was revealed that she was the only one who'd done any advanced planning. They hadn't had a moment to relax before two Death Eaters - Rowle and Dolohov - came in the cafe after them. They were clearly surprised to see Theo with the Gryffindors, but didn't pause their dueling to interrogate the Nott heir. Didn't they already know about her relationship with him? Surely Draco or Greyback should have said something about it.

It was a miracle that they were able to incapacitate the two Death Eaters, even with the two on four odds, but they knew they weren't out of the woods yet. "What do we do, Hermione?" Harry asked, pacing back and forth like a mad man. "They've seen us, we can't just let them go."

"We could obliviate them," Ron said, finally having a suggestion. "Hermione, you should do it - you're the best with spells, and well...we don't want to mess this up."

He didn't see the distressed look on her face at the demand that she handle everything, just like she always did, but Theo did. He gave her a hard look. "No, I will do it," he insisted, leaving no room for arguments between them. Hermione relaxed, glad to have him, but furious that Remus must have told him about her parents.

"You can't do it," Ron sputtered, upset. "How will we know if you are actually wiping their memories and not just letting them run back to You-Know-Who like you've been ordered to?"

Theo rounded on the other boy, practically snarling in fury. "You'll just have to trust me or do it yourself, Weasley," he answered, waiting a beat for him to say anything. When Ron had no further argument, Theo returned to his task and obliviated the pair effectively.

"Where do we go next?" Harry asked weakly, looking to Hermione for guidance like he always did. "We can't stay out here, not while Death Eaters are on our tail."

"We should go to Grimmauld Place," Hermione said, sounding unsure of herself. "Since it's not under fidelius anymore, they might not think that we would return there."

Harry didn't look too convinced, but he nodded in agreement. "I suppose it's worth the risk. We don't have to stay long, just until we figure out a plan."

That decided, they all grabbed onto Hermione's hand again and she side-along apparated them the old Black townhouse. When they walked inside, it was empty but ransacked. After a few revealing spells, Hermione pronounced that they were truly well and alone.

Regrouping in what had once been a parlor, Theo quickly lit a fire in the fireplace. It might have been summer, but the townhouse was dank and drafty and the fire chased away some of the gloominess. Eerie shadows played on the walls, while they all stared at one another, trying to get a handle on everything that had happened that night. Hermione was glad to have Theo's protective arm around her, letting her rest her head on his shoulder.

Ron was the first to break the silence. "So, what, he's just going to be coming with us then?" he asked, making it abundantly clear how unwelcome he found Theo Nott.

Hermione sat up straighter, knowing that it was better they have this conversation now, rather than letting it fester. "Yes," she said, leaving no room for argument. "I've told you that I'm Theo's mate...it's more than just dating. We are...compelled to be with one another. Where I go, he goes."

"But he's a werewolf, Hermione," Ron argued back, unwilling to give up an inch. "Don't you think it's a little bit dangerous to be dragging a werewolf all over with us? We need to focus on taking down You-Know-Who. You can't be worrying about a werewolf, too."

She could feel Theo stiffening at Ron's hurled barbs, but he didn't respond. Lifting her chin, she looked at Harry, trying to figure out where he stood in this argument. "Harry, you know that I would do whatever I could to help you," she said, swallowing thickly. "If you would rather I don't come with you, to help you, because you are uncomfortable with Theo, I will respect your wishes. I am sure that Remus would be happy to help in my place."

Hermione made the offer knowing that her assistance was something that Harry could not really afford to turn down. After all, wasn't tonight proof enough for that? Still, she sat up rigidly, waiting for him to answer, knowing that he might tell her to leave and take Theo with her, if he was going to be coming with.

Harry ran his fingers through messy black hair. "Of course I want you to come with, Hermione," he said in a rush, flashing an apologetic look to Ron. "And if you say that you and Theo are...a package deal now, I guess he will come along, too."

"Harry!" Ron spluttered. "What if he's a Death Eater?"

Theo wrenched up his sleeve, revealing unblemished skin to the two boys. "I'm not and never will be a Death Eater. I didn't want to be one, but I certainly wouldn't become one after I was bitten by Greyback on the Dark Lord's orders," he snarled at Ron's obtuse statement. "Look, you are just going to trust me. And, if you can't trust me, than at least trust that I would never ever let any harm come to Hermione."

"Ron, we are going to need all the help that we can get," Harry said, shoulders dropping with the gravity of the situation coming crashing down on him, suddenly. "And, you saw, Nott could hold his own in a duel. If he wants to come along on this...this suicide mission with us, then, I am not going to stop him. We have five bloody horcruxes to find after all!"

"Dumbledore told you not to tell anyone about those," Ron croaked, still unhappy with Theo being privy to _all_ the details.

"Yeah, but it didn't stop me from telling you and Hermione," Harry argued back. "I can't do this on my own, Ron. And, if Hermione trusts Nott, I trust him, too," he said with finality. His mind was made up on the matter, and Hermione knew she could relax, at least partially.

"Ron, is this going to be a problem for you?" she asked cautiously, reading his face. Even though they hadn't worked out as a couple, Hermione still cared about the redhead as a friend. They'd been together, the three of them, for nearly seven years now. She hoped this wouldn't be the thing to tear them apart.

He frowned, but shook his head. "It's fine," he said, sounding sullen. "But, don't make me regret this Nott," he added on with a warning, before standing up from his seat. "I am going to see if I can find some food in the kitchen. Maybe Kreacher has left some tins or something." He fled the room.

Harry, realizing that he was left alone with a rather amorous couple, quickly made his own excuses, saying he was going to go look in Sirius's room for what was left. When Hermione and Theo were finally alone, he pulled her to his chest, kissing the top of her head, laying down on the chaise they shared. "You should get some rest," he whispered. "I figure good sleep will be few and far between from here on out."

Listening to his heart beat a steady rhythm, Hermione felt her eyes quickly drooping shut.


	26. Chapter 26

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad that you like that Theo is coming along on the horcrux hunt. Lots of things to get through and lots of things to change! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-six and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-seven soon!

* * *

Things had never felt so topsy-turvy in Hermione's life, not even when she had found out that she was a witch all those years ago. For once in her life, she'd had no idea what to do next. It had been crushing for Harry to realize that they had not retrieved a genuine horcrux, but rather, just a copy left there by a mysterious R.A.B.. They had spent their second night in Grimmauld Place drinking firewhiskey that was far too expensive for any teenager to be drinking, commiserating that they were back at step one and that Dumbledore's death had been for nothing at all.

Theo had opened up to the trio of Gryffindor about his friendship with Draco Malfoy, telling them bittersweet memories of going to Quidditch matches with the blond. There had even been a moment when Hermione thought that things might be turning a corner with Ron and Theo, after they wistfully recounted some amazing save by the Arrows' keeper in 1988.

Harry had listened on the edge of his seat as Theo recounted how he'd been brought before the Death Eaters to receive his father's punishment and that Draco had done the same. Only Draco had been given the dubious honor of being branded against his will. "He was set up to fail. The only reason he tried was because he is trying to protect his mother," Theo murmured, taking sips of the amber colored liquid.

In the end, she wasn't sure if Harry wanted to believe it or not.

The following day, Ron had excitedly announced that he'd figured out the identity of R.A.B., and before Hermione knew it, they were extracting a tearful confession from Kreacher, the Blacks' elderly house elf, of how he'd failed his master, and had been unable to destroy the locket. And, it had been stolen by Mundungus Fletcher.

Dobby and Kreacher had only been too happy to be commanded to bring the man back to Harry, and in the blink of an eye, the group of teenagers was threatening the Order of the Phoenix member, trying to determine where it could have gotten to. Hermione felt a chill up her spine when Mundungus announced that he'd handed it over to none other and Dolores Umbridge.

"Right," Harry said, pressing his hands together as soon as they had gotten rid of the thief. "We will just have to go and get it from her. At the Ministry," he said, as if it was rather matter-of-fact.

Once he was gone from Grimmauld Place, she began nibbling on her lip, trying to come up with a plan. "I _do_ have some polyjuice prepared," Hermione said cautiously, thinking that their best bet would be to just impersonate some Ministerial workers to avoid detection. They certainly couldn't waltz in looking like themselves.

Theo groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. "Of course you have polyjuice in your bag," he said, sounding resigned to their fate. "Please tell me you aren't just going to walk into the Ministry of Magic? Did you forget that you are all currently top of the wanted list?"

Ron shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it's not like we've got really much choice," he countered, annoyed to have a voice of reason for a change. "So unless you have some better plan..."

As it turned out, Theo did not have a better plan, and so the four teenagers found themselves flushing themselves in to the Ministry with absolutely no idea who they were meant to be or what they were meant to be doing. Regrouping in the atrium, Harry spoke quickly. "Okay, let's meet back here in an hour. The polyjuice will last that long, right, Hermione?"

Hermione - or the witch she was polyjuiced as - looked extraordinarily anxious, but there was no mistaking the doubt in her eyes. "I - I don't know," she whispered furiously.

Theo was looking around, trying to gain his bearings and quickly became aware that they were attracting attention. "Everyone is staring at us," he said through clenched teeth. "We must not be the type to hang out with each other usually. We need to separate _now."_

Swallowing thickly, Hermione nodded, turning on her heel and marching off in search of...what she wasn't entirely sure. She couldn't believe her luck when she stumbled into Dolores Umbridge herself, wearing that blasted locket around her neck. There were too many people around them for her to try and take it, but Umbridge seemed to need _Mafalda's_ assistance, so Hermione tagged along happily.

As it turned out, she was some sort of court recorder, tasked with keeping track of the trials that Umbridge was conducting. Feeling her stomach roil in anger, Hermione had to listen to muggleborn after muggleborn beg and plead, promising that they didn't steal their magic. The only thing that helped her keep her calm was when she saw the wizard the Theo was polyjuiced as slip in the back of the room, back pressed against the wall as he watched the proceedings, idly playing with his wand.

But, things didn't grow out of hand until Harry and Ron stumbled into the scene at precisely the right moment. Hermione was blessing their luck, wondering if Harry still had some of the Felix Felicis in his possession. Harry, always with a flair of the dramatic, had honed in on the presence of the horcrux immediately, not bothering to moderate his behavior, and began stalking towards the odious Umbridge.

Words were exchanged between the pair, and the next thing she knew, Hermione was snatching the locket off of the stunned woman's neck, and sprinting with the boys back to the floos as a horde of dementors were unleashed. Spells were whizzing past her as she felt Ministry officials...Death Eaters, hot on their tails. Desperate to get them out of there, Hermione wouldn't stop until they got through back to the relative safety of Grimmauld Place.

To her dismay, she felt someone grab her leg at the last minute, following them through the green flames. She kicked and struggled, but the damage was already done. Yaxley, the Death Eater who'd grabbed hold of her, had seen where they had gone to, and she knew that they couldn't stay. Sprawled out on the floor, Hermione shoved her foot into his face, getting free of him, and immediately apparating the three boys _again_.

The strain of it all - getting herself free from Yaxley and then apparating again so quickly - must have been far greater than Hermione could have anticipated. For the first time since she'd gotten her apparition license, she made a mistake. Her momentary relief of being safely away in the middle of the Forest of Dean evaporated when she heard Ron's gasps for air and realize that she'd splinched him.

Tears sprung to her eyes while she tried to keep a handle on her mind. If she could just think _clearly_ for a second -

Bloody hands searched wildly in her bag for dittany, sighing in relief when she finally found it. Ron was bleeding so much and she knew that she needed to put a stop to it as soon as possible. She was so focused on her friend she almost didn't hear the commotion behind her.

"Hermione, what the hell happened there?" Harry demanded, watching Ron with his face white as a sheet. "What did you do?"

"What did _she_ do?" Theo exploded, shoving the shorter boy back a few paces. "Don't you _dare_ put this on her, Potter! She did everything in her power to get us out of there safely."

"Yeah, but Ron -" he stuttered, shocked by the amount of blood that was sinking into the ground. "And where the bloody hell are we?"

"Yaxley had me by the leg and we couldn't stay, _Harry_ ," she tried to explain, her voice quivering with unspent emotion, unable to focus on what she trying to get out. Her fine motor skills were gone to shit while she tried to get the stopper out of the vial of dittany, her fingers shaking so bad she was nearly useless.

Theo, sensing her difficulty knelt next to her and took the bottle from her, before removing the stopper and handing it back to her.

Hermione was grateful for him, then, more than ever. Knowing that Ron needed his bleeding stopped as quickly as possible, she dumped the whole vial on his wound, wincing in horror at the scream that was ripped from his throat as his skin knitted itself back together slowly. "I'm sorry, Ron," she cried, giving him her hand to hold. "It's better to just get it over quickly."

Harry had not finished his angry tirade. "So, what, now we are just out here in the middle of nowhere? How is this any _safer_ than Grimmauld Place?" he questioned.

Theo was unable to hold back his snarl. "How dare you talk to her about being safe, when it was _you_ who put us all in this situation in the first place, barging into the Ministry like that? And there were many better ways to handle Umbridge. You did _not_ have to go announcing yourself to the whole bloody Ministry!" he shouted at the bespectacled boy. "Hermione is the _only_ one who has done any sort of preparation for this little excursion you are dragging us all on. Salazar, did you and Weasley even bother to learn how to apparate?"

Harry was silent, ashamed at the truth that Theo was telling him. Had he really not realized how much he relied on her?

She could hear Theo panting in anger. "Why does _every_ bloody thing have to fall on her shoulders, Potter?" he asked, knowing that he wasn't going to receive an answer.

Ron's cries were beginning to die down as his body tried to process the pain that he was going through. Hermione felt herself relax a miniscule amount, wiping her hands on the pencil skirt she'd taken from Mafalda.

Behind her, Theo had raised his wand and begun putting up protective charms. "What are you doing?" Harry questioned, his own wand held tightly in his hand.

She could practically hear Theo rolling his eyes at her friend's question. "Putting up wards, Potter. We can't just be out in the open like sitting ducks," he sneered, before resuming his work.

Knowing that Harry would be unable to join in until he was taught the wards, Hermione pulled out the expandable tent she'd packed and handed it to him. "Here, you can set this up," she said, awkwardly.

There was no denying the new tension that now existed between Theo and Harry, after the werewolf's furious outburst. Hermione figured that Harry was not expecting the normally taciturn Slytherin to be quite so vocal about his displeasure of the way that she was being treated by her two friends. Her belly twisted in concern, and she gave Harry a half smile to smooth things over. "He's just protective of me," she said softly. "He was worried about my safety."

 _This_ was what Remus had been warning her about when he cautioned her not to go along with Harry and Ron, telling her that Theo was too young a werewolf. Being a teenager was difficult enough, but the added strain of being around his mate was probably pushing him to the breaking point. He had flown off the handle. She supposed she should be grateful that more serious fighting hadn't broken out.

Knowing that Theo was probably feeling a bit insecure himself, Hermione moved to stand next to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Now that he had returned to his normal height, the pants he wore were painfully too short. "I'm okay," she told him, honestly. "Just a bit shaken up. Let's finish with the wards and then we can clean up in the tent."

Theo looked at her with wide, concerned eyes, searching her face for any deception on her part. When he determined that she really was unharmed, he gave her a curt nod.


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad you are enjoying this new horcrux hunt with Theo involved. His presense is definitely going to cause some changes to canon, if you hadn't already guessed. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-seven and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-eight in a few days!

* * *

Everything seemed so much more serious now that they were camping out in the wilderness with no direction. As if it hadn't been clear enough before, the knowledge that they had no plan to speak of was only made more obvious every day that they spent wandering around the forest, hiding in the expandable tent at night.

Harry, at least, had been sufficiently kowtowed by Theo's rebuke of his tendency to put those closest to him in grave danger. He spent most of his days looking at Ron's arm in a sling with an incredibly guilty look, and his evenings trying to blast the locket apart into smithereens, with no luck.

"You won't be able to destroy that with a simple diffindo," Theo said with a snort, leaning back into the couch with his arm slung around Hermione's shoulders as she read the book Dumbledore gave her, furiously translating the runes. He was happy to help her whenever she got stuck, but she was generally much better with runes than he was. "You heard the house elf...even he wasn't able to destroy it."

Harry snorted in derision. "I suppose that you would be the _expert_ in dark magic, Nott," he said, more annoyed with his own ineptitude than Theo's presence.

Theo was not one to back down from a verbal challenge, especially after spending so many days in tight quarters with the boys. "Yes, my father never held back any knowledge from me, including numerous types of dark magic, the sort of thing that they don't teach in Hogwarts," he said, rolling his eyes. He wasn't going to apologize when he hadn't done anything wrong. "But I never had a primer in _horcruxes_."

The messy-haired boy crossed his arms over his chest, playing with the locket that currently was resting around his neck. "Still, you must have _some_ idea of how to destroy it," he countered, knowing that he would take pretty much any idea at this point.

"Well, _fiendfyre_ seems like the most obvious choice," he drawled, his fingers playing with Hermione's hair. "You wouldn't happen to have any basilisk venom hiding in your little bag, would you, Hermione?"

She snorted at that, showing that she was very much paying attention to the discussion between her boyfriend and best friend. "Plumb out, I'm afraid," she said, before giving a secret smile to Harry. Theo had extracted the story of the polyjuice out of her one evening while they were sharing one of the bunk beds together, laughing about how they thought that Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin, but she hadn't gone into detail about what Harry experienced in the Chamber of Secrets. "I don't think we should do around using _fiendfyre_ , either, except as a last resort. It could get wildly out of control."

"It feels like a last resort," Harry said glumly, the time with the locket around his neck affecting him in particular out of the four of them.

Hermione shut her book sharply, before setting it to the side. "We can talk about it more later," she announced, before giving Theo's hand a squeeze. "We have to tell you something first."

Harry's green eyes roved between Theo and Hermione wildly. "Hermione, please, tell me you aren't pregnant," he nearly begged.

"What?" she squawked, clearly caught off-guard by the question. "Wha-Harry, no. I am not pregnant. We haven't - _we aren't_ \- we haven't," she sputtered, embarrassed and unsure of what to say back to him.

"Could have fooled me," Harry countered, one eyebrow raised in surprise.

Hermione cleared her throat. "No, I am not pregnant. We need to talk about the full moon," she said, significantly, effectively destroying some of the light-heartedness in the room. "It's tonight, and...well, we don't have any wolfsbane."

For Theo, at least, his next transformation had been creeping towards him with terrifying pace, until before he knew it, the night of the full moon was upon him. He vaguely remembered his first changes, before he'd returned to Hogwarts and had wolfsbane at ready access, and it was tinged with fear and pain. He hoped that things would be easier now that he had been changed for over a year and had more than a dozen transformations under his belt.

Harry looked stricken, then, perhaps reminded for the first time in a long time what it meant to be a werewolf. "What are we...what are we going to do?" he asked, looking at Theo suspiciously, not hiding his line of thinking that Theo should just handle things on his own.

"Theo and I are going to have to leave the wards tonight," Hermione said firmly. "You can let us back in tomorrow morning."

Immediately, both Theo and Harry began to protest her pronouncement, though likely for different reasons.

"Hermione, you can't go out there with him, especially not without wolfsbane," Harry sputtered, sounding genuinely concerned for his friend and what it would mean if he didn't have her in his life. "It's too dangerous."

"I can't let you do this, Hermione," Theo said quietly, even though his body was singing for her to be near him during such a vulnerable time.

Hermione shook her head. "I knew that you guys were going to be against this, but I can't leave Theo to fend for himself. While he's transformed, he could go anywhere and we might not be able to reunite with him in the morning," she explained, biting at her lower lip. She cupped Theo's cheek gently, nails scratching at the days old beard that he wore. "And, you, Theo...I _know_ you won't hurt me when you're transformed. I am your mate, and your wolf knows it too. He wouldn't allow harm to come to me, especially not from yourself."

She could see him clenching his jaw, fighting back whatever argument he wanted to make, knowing that it was going to be a losing battle. Instead, he shut his eyes, letting himself enjoy the feeling of her skin against his. "There is no arguing with you, is there?" he asked, sullenly.

She smirked happily, knowing that she had won this time. "Of course not," she said triumphantly.

"So nothing _I_ say is going to change your mind then?" Harry asked, his shoulders deflated in defeat.

"You are just going to have to trust me, Harry," Hermione said, hoping to smooth things over. "It's not the first time that I've been with him during the full moon," she breezed over, leaving out the fact that he'd been fully dosed with wolfsbane at the time.

Knowing that there wasn't much time left before the sun went down, the three of them joined Ron for a tense dinner, telling him about their plans. The redhead didn't like the idea of letting Hermione go out with a known werewolf, but he felt too helpless to argue. It wasn't as if he could stop Hermione when she had her mind made up, after all, and he was even more useless with his arm still out of commission.

When the time came, Hermione reviewed all of the warding with Harry, wanting to make sure that he would be able to handle everything when she was gone. "So, we will be waiting by that tree," she pointed to a large evergreen just outside of the wards, "tomorrow morning at nine. You'll let us in. Nine precisely, okay?"

Harry fidgeted with his pocket watch, making sure that it was the correct time. "What if you aren't there?" he asked, nervously.

"Only drop the wards for a minute," Hermione told him sternly. "And if we aren't there...well, you will just have to move on. We will...we will have to keep fighting on our own, I suppose." While she was hopeful that nothing would go wrong, Hermione knew that it was possibility they would have to face.

Not waiting any longer, Hermione grabbed Theo's arm and pulled him out of the ward, only to immediately settle down in front of the tree she had pointed out to Harry, pulling out a blanket and _the Tales of Beedle the Bard_.

Theo dropped next to her, bone weary, and slipped under the blanket as well, happy to enjoy a moment of privacy with her for the first time in months. "I wish you hadn't done this, Hermione," he told her, before sighing. He was too tired to start another argument with her. "You don't need to be responsible for everyone, all the time."

"If there is anyone that I want to take care of, it's you, Theo," she said, honestly. "And I wouldn't have been able to sleep at all tonight if I had known that you were out here all by yourself, without anyone to protect you." She turned her head and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. "I know you are worried about me, but I am worried about _you_."

She could feel some of the tension leaving his body, and she wondered when the last time was that he had someone who was so open and affectionate with him. They never talked much about his family, but she got the impression that it was never a very happy home. "How is your translating going?" he asked, needing something to neutral to talk about to pass the time until moonrise.

"Fine," she said, a bit annoyed. "I'm not understanding why Dumbledore left this to me...I know there must be _some_ reason, but right now, all it seems like is children's stories." She nibbled at her lower lip, hating how cryptic the former Headmaster had been in his will. Then she remembered the odd symbol she'd found on one of the first pages. Flipping to it eagerly, she showed Theo. "Do you know what this symbol is? I can't find reference to it anywhere."

His blue eyes widened in surprise. "Well, you probably wouldn't. It's a symbol for the Deathly Hallows - the elder wand, resurrection stone and the invisibility cloak," he explained, hearing Hermione's heart hammer in her chest.

"Like in the tale of the three brothers?" she asked, paging through to the story that he was referencing.

"Yes. If you have all three, it is said that you are the master of death," he said with a snort. "But it's just a story, Hermione...nothing real."

"But it could be," she said, turning to face him. "Harry has an invisibility cloak, and if _that's_ real then...doesn't it stand to reason that the other two hallows could be real, too? It _sounds_ like something You-Know-Who would be after, doesn't it? After all, that's what he's trying to do with the horcruxes."

Before the pair could talk about it too much, Theo froze in pain, throwing himself away from her. She watched as the transformation took over his body, his arms clutching his sides as his bone and sinew stretched and changed to accommodate his new lupine body. He was growling when he finally laid eyes on her again.

Hermione felt a bolt of fear run up her spine when he began to advance towards her, but forced herself to keep still. He pressed his nose against her body, sniffing up from her legs all the way to her face. The wolf gave her a contented snuffle then, realizing he knew who she was, _his mate_ , before letting dropping down to lay beside her, his head in her lap. She laughed a bit, glad that her assumption that he wouldn't hurt her had been right. She had been nearly positive, but she knew there was still a chance he could bite her in his werewolf form.

They spent most of the night cuddled next to one another, with Theo darting off once or twice to track down a rabbit to bring back to her as some kind of morbid present, that Hermione rewarded with scratches behind his ears.

When nine AM finally came, Theo and Hermione were waiting for the wards to let them in, exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. The werewolf grinned at the two worried boys who appeared out of nowhere, his arm slung around Hermione's shoulders and two rabbits held in his other hand, proud that it had gone better than expected and ready to shove his usefulness in their faces.


	28. Chapter 28

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Fair warning, this chapter gets a little smutty at the end. When I was rereading it, I was like...whoa, when did this get out of control, haha! I am sure you won't mind too much, but if you want, you can skip over the end. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-eight and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-nine soon!

* * *

The days dragged on and on with seemingly no end in sight. It was abundantly clear to everyone that they had no idea what they were doing, or even what they were looking for, even if no one wanted to say it aloud. Instead, they contented themselves with wandering from place to place, setting up camp when they got tired enough, and then keeping watch over the night for snatchers.

Tensions had been bubbling up between the four teenagers, made all the worse by the horcrux that they took turns wearing. It always made Hermione's skin crawl to have it draped around her neck, whispering _terrible, horrible_ things into her ears, looking for any cracks in her mind that it could exploit. Theo was the least affected by it, something that only made Harry and Ron more suspicious of the young werewolf.

"It's probably because werewolves are already dark creatures," Hermione tried to explain in a hushed whisper one day. "The dark magic won't affect him as much. I really don't see how it's a problem. It would be good to have one of us keep a cool head."

"Or maybe it's because he's so accustomed to dark magic," Ron sneered at her instead, enjoying the way that his words made her squirm. He always seemed to turn especially vicious when he wore Slytherin's locket. "Face it, Hermione, your _boyfriend_ is a dark wizard, and he probably _loves_ having a little bit of You-Know-Who around his neck every day."

Hermione forced herself to bite her tongue, knowing that Ron wouldn't be so rude if it wasn't for the locket in the first place, but he wasn't doing much to make spending time with him very enjoyable. He made so secret how annoyed he was with Theo and Hermione's relationship, but Hermione could understand that it would be hard to see everyday. She couldn't pretend like it wasn't massively comforting to be able to snuggle into a little bed with Theo's warm, protective arms around her at night. He was only made further surly by his frustration due to the lingering pain in his arm from where he'd been splinched. Hermione had done her best to patch him up, but ideally he would have gone to a Healer to repair the damage, so she didn't doubt that it was causing him discomfort.

Instead of talking about his feelings with any of his friends, though, Ron chose to retreat into his own little bubble, clinging to a wizarding radio, listening for any news of what was going on in the world. It never provided the comfort he was looking for, instead serving only as a morbid soundtrack of witches and wizards who had been found dead or remained missing.

On a bitterly cold night, Ron remained on watch outside of the tent, staring into the bleak night air, while Harry, Hermione and Theo sat at the small table inside huddled around a jar with a bluebell flame providing light to look over some books. They were discussing possible hiding places for other horcruxes as well as potential artifacts that Voldemort would have used to put his soul into.

"Can there be...living horcruxes?" Theo asked, cautiously, his eyes remaining firmly on the table in front of him.

"I'm...I'm not sure, but I wouldn't put it past him to try," Hermione said, eyebrows drawn together while she was thinking it over. "He obviously doesn't care about other people unless they are useful to him. Why? Did you have...a thought?"

Theo rubbed his hand across the back of his neck. "He has this giant snake, and...I don't know, there is something... _off_ about it," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Follows him around everywhere and he babies it. It's disturbing."

"Nagini," Harry said, eyes wide in surprise.

Before Harry could explain how he knew about Voldemort's little pet snake, they were distracted by the crackle of the airwaves as Ron tried to tune in to the station. Theo couldn't stop the growl from bubbling up in his chest, the constant static doing a number on his sensitive ears. "I wish he would stop listening to that _bloody_ thing all day long," he said, his voice barely more than a rumble in his chest.

It was enough for Harry to hear, though, and he gave a little murmur of agreement.

The next thing that they knew, Ron was shoving the flap of the tent open. The redhead's face was contorted in fury. "Yeah, well I wish I didn't have to listen to you shag the girl I fancy every day, but here we are," he snarled, looking between the three of them. "Oh, did you guys forget about me? Too busy in here plotting about how the Weasley is just holding you back?"

"Ron, what are you talking about?" Hermione asked, wondering where this outburst was coming from. "We aren't plotting against you. The locket has made you paranoid."

"Oh, don't even pretend like you aren't!" he shouted, pulling at the chain of the ancient locket, freeing it from his neck and throwing it down onto the ground in front of him. "Listen, I know that you lot have nothing to lose, but I do! I can't help but listen - I still _have_ a family that cares about me, unlike you three - and I am _desperate_ for any news about them, so yeah, I fucking listen to the radio. At least I am able to do _something_. You brought us out here without a plan!"

"Excuse me?" Harry barked out in anger. "We don't have families so we can't understand what it's like? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, even from _you_. And we aren't plotting against you."

"I'm _not_ dumb, Harry, and I know that you and Hermione have been so _keen_ to replace me with his fucking Slytherin with his bloody beard!" Ron shouted, pointing aggressively at Theo. "Well, I will just make it easier for all of you. I'm leaving!" The rash young man turned on his heel, exiting the tent, only to have Hermione and Harry running after him.

Hermione had tears in her eyes, knowing that Ron wouldn't be saying those sort of things if he hadn't been wearing the locket all day. "Ron, wait!" she called after him, running so that she could grab his arm, hoping to get him to stay. Just because they weren't destined for romance didn't mean that he wasn't still her friend, someone she cared about.

He roughly pulled his wrist from her grasp, not stopping until he got to the other side of the wards, promptly disaparating.

She turned around to look at Harry and Theo, wishing that they would have done more to stop him. Harry looked guilty and couldn't quite meet her eyes. "He wanted to leave, Hermione. We couldn't have stopped him," he said, with a frown. "I'll take first watch...you two should get some rest."

With tears in her eyes, Hermione knew that having Theo's arms around her would bring a unique sort of comfort, so she let her boyfriend guide her back into the tent, towards the bunk beds. Kneeling down before her, he carefully unlaced her boots, helping her to step out of each shoe. He righted himself to his full height, helping her out of her jacket before repeating the process with himself. Waiting for her to clamber up into the top bunk, he followed her afterwards, pulling her towards him, so she could rest with her cheek against his face.

Hermione could feel a lump in her throat, feeling horrible that Ron had felt so left out, even if he was just imagining slights. "He was still my friend," she explained, awkwardly, wiping away the wetness on her cheeks. "But he's always done this...given up when things got a little too difficult."

"I'm sorry he left," Theo said, kissing the crown of her head. "I'm sorry he hurt you."

She felt so fragile in that moment, but in Theo's arms, she felt like he just might be able to hold her together a while longer. Pushing herself up, she caught his lips in a lingering kiss, wishing she could just stay there forever, until he was pulling back. Hermione stared into his dark blue eyes, seeing unbridled affection and sweetness, before kissing him once more, deepening the kiss.

"Please, Theo," she begged, knowing that her emotions were raw and heightened. "I _need_ to feel close to you right now."

He turned her over, so that his body was spooned around her, and for a minute she felt disappointment flood her body. One of his arms was wound tightly against her belly, pulling her even closer to him, until her arse was nestled back against his hard cock. Gasping, Hermione could feel desire pool in her belly, hopeful that he was going to give her what she wanted.

His other hand came up to cover her mouth. Theo pressed his face into the crook of her neck, his hot breath causing shivers to rack her body. "We'll have to keep you quiet so Harry doesn't overhear," he whispered, mischievously. "Seems we haven't always been as quiet as I'd thought." The hand around her waist worked to unfasten her jeans, pushing and dragging them down over her hips, down to her knees.

Hermione felt delirious when his hand delved inside the front of her knickers, rough fingertips finding the pearl at the top of her sex easily enough, circling it just the way she liked. She could feel herself growing unbearably wet and she wanted nothing more than to feel him, too. Reaching behind herself, she fumbled around with his own pants until she could get them free.

Theo must have taken pity on her, or grown so eager himself, that he temporarily stopped his ministrations, allowing him to shuck his own jeans down, freeing himself. He groaned when he realized that Hermione had taken the opportunity to push down her knickers as well. He ground his erection against the smooth skin of her arse, his fingers finding her folds once again, spreading her wetness everywhere.

He kissed the skin of her neck behind her ear, sucking and scraping his teeth against her, enjoying the way that she rocked against his hand, taking control over her own pleasure while he entered her with his fingers again and again.

She wanted nothing more than him inside of her, but she knew that this was not the way she imagined their first time together. Reaching behind her, she took hold of his cock, only to position it between her legs, so that he was next to her core. Shuddering, she enjoyed the way he felt against her body. Rocking experimentally, she loved the way he felt sliding against her and repeated the action. The head of his cock pressed just right against her clit and she could feel her heart hammer away at how amazing it was to be _this_ close to Theo.

He pushed his hand up underneath her shirt, underneath the fabric of her bra, his thumb pressing against the hard point of her nipple. Suddenly, Hermione was very glad to have his hand muffling her noises, because she was sure Harry would have no doubt what they were up to based on the way he was making her moan.

Theo rocked his hips in time with her, each of them enjoying the friction of their bodies moving against one another. "Oh, _Merlin_ , Hermione," he said her name like a prayer. "You feel amazing. Can't wait to be inside you."

She could feel her core tightening at his promised words and she knew she was close herself. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, but she couldn't stop her movements until finally she found her peak. Moaning into his hand, Hermione let the waves of pleasure crash over her, vaguely registering that Theo was still rocking against her, chasing his own orgasm, hips snapping against her body again and again, until he came.

Hermione could feel herself flush from how much she had enjoyed that, but couldn't find it in herself to regret the moment. Reaching for her wand, she cast a quick cleansing spell. Then, she grabbed Theo's arm, and wrapped it snuggly against her. She wasn't ready to be parted from him just yet, not when he was quickly becoming the only bright spot in her life at the moment. "Thank you," she whispered, pressing a kiss against his forearm, before letting sleep claim her.


	29. Chapter 29

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so glad that you are enjoying this one. I am excited to share this chapter with you! I hope that you like how I've handled the canon events here. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-nine and be on the lookout for chapter thirty soon!

* * *

Even with Ron gone, the tension between the three remaining teenagers hadn't dissipated at all. If anything, it only threw into sharp relief the fact of how little they had accomplished as the weeks had gone by, days growing shorter and nights growing colder. Their food supply had always been limited, but even with one less mouth to feed, it was still dwindling day after day.

Hermione tried to offer helpful advice, but it was becoming more and more clear that Harry had never had any plan to begin with. They were no closer to finding another horcrux than they had been when they fled the Burrow, and the one that they had still remained stubbornly in tact.

Harry was constantly wracked by emotions that weren't his own, and he grimly reported to Hermione and Theo that Voldemort was looking for something. "He's searching for...a _solution_ ," he whispered between gritted teeth while his hands pressed against his temples, wishing that he could push the images from his head. "He's desperate for...whatever it is he is looking for."

The lone female traveler had pulled out _Tales of Beedle the Bard_ , then, leafing through the pages until she found the one she wanted. "I think he might be searching for the Elder Wand," Hermione said with a frown, nibbling at her lower lip. "This symbol here is the symbol of the Deathly Hallows - a resurrection stone, a cloak of invisibility, and the elder wand. The most powerful wand ever created. To wield it would make a wizard unstoppable."

"Your wands connected last time?" Theo asked, waiting for Harry to nod in agreement. "That's called _priori incantatem_. It's due to the fact that your wand cores are the same. He is probably trying to find a different, more powerful wand, so that the next time you meet, he won't face the same problem again."

"Merlin, you really _are_ perfect for Hermione," Harry said with a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. "Bloody swots, the two of you."

Hermione was glad that Harry was coming around on the idea of her and Theo being with one another. She was worried that he would be forever taking Ron's side, thinking that her and the youngest male Weasley should end up together. And, she agreed with his reading...she and Theo really were well suited to one another.

Theo did not take as kindly to being called a swot. "That's not very nice, Potter," he said with a sniff. "Not when I am only trying to save your life."

Harry laughed, enjoying the moment briefly, before the knowledge that Voldemort was looking for a wand that would make him unbeatable sunk in again. "I think we need to go to Godric's Hollow," Harry said suddenly. "I mean, everything has been pointing there...Dumbledore and the book...Hell, everything between me and Voldemort started there. I think we need to go back."

"I...alright. If you think we should go, we should go," Hermione conceded, quickly.

"Absolutely not!" Theo protested immediately. "If you want a little family reunion, you can do that after we've dealt with the fucking horcruxes, Potter. I am sick and tired of you just going off of hunches and running into things without a plan. It's dangerous, and I am not going to let you put Hermione in danger again." He crossed his arms over his broad chest, staring down at the shorter wizard, using his imposing height to his advantage.

Harry took a half-step back. "Well...well, what do you suggest we do then, Nott? Since you are so brimming full of ideas."

"We need to destroy the horcrux that we _do_ have. We are doing ourselves no favors by keeping it around. It's just going to continue to wear us down the longer we have it," he explained, calmly, rationally.

"If we knew how to do that, don't you think we would have done it already?" Harry demanded.

"We _do_ know how to destroy it," Theo countered, annoyance clear on his face. " _Fiendfyre_."

"That's...that's too dangerous," Hermione said, wetting her lower chapped lips, the same lips that he kissed every night. "We decided not to use _fiendfyre._ It could get out of control. We have no idea what will happen."

"No, _you_ lot decided not to use _fiendfyre_ ," he argued back, clearly frustrated that they weren't even willing to try the spell. "Listen, it wouldn't be the first time that I've tried it, okay. Just let me get rid of the bloody locket, and once I do, I promise we will feel so much better. Then we can go rushing off to Godric's Hollow or wherever, but please, please, can we just accomplish _one_ thing?"

Harry was already pulling the horcrux off from around his neck. "Harry!" Hermione scolded. "What are you doing?"

"What? I might go mad if we don't have something go right for a change," he said with a shrug of his shoulders. "And if Theo is so keen to try it, I'm going to let him." He threw the emerald locket down on the forest floor, not caring where it landed.

"And if we all end up dead?" Hermione asked pointedly.

"Hermione, as soon as Dumbledore died, we all knew that the highest probability outcome is that we all end up dead," he said with a snort. "Might as well give it a shot if we even think it has a chance of working."

Theo wrapped his arms around Hermione's body, pulling her into his chest. "Have a little faith in me, Hermione," he said, using his hands to tilt her face up so that she could look at him. "I haven't let anything bad happen to you yet, have I?" He leaned over so that he could slant his lips against hers in a desperate kiss, lingering just a little too long for Harry's liking.

She was nervous about what would happen, but she knew that Theo was telling the truth. He wouldn't even attempt it if he thought there was a chance that his mate would get hurt in the process. "Okay," she agreed, hugging him tightly.

Harry cleared his throat when they broke apart. "I'll command it to open," he said cautiously, wand drawn just in case. "But I have no idea what will happen when it does. So just...be prepared."

Theo pushed Hermione well behind him, making sure that he would have plenty of space to work. "Go ahead," he said, once he was certain that he was ready.

The soft uttering of parseltongue was enough to have the locket that had once belonged to Salazar Slytherin snapped open. Theo was lulled into a false sense of security when nothing happened immediately. Before long, though, a miasma seemed to ooze out of the heart of it, forming and taking shapes. The voice that had been whispering to all of them for so long now seemed to echo in the clearing.

"Theodore, how could you turn your back on your family?" the voice, sickeningly sweet, singled him out immediately. "We all expected better of you. We never would have guessed you could be a _blood traitor_."

The inky blackness was taking shape, advancing towards him, until he realized that it was his father walking towards him. "You can still come back, Theodore," his father's shade said. "If you repent, you could still be great. Even if you want to fuck a mudblood."

"No," he heard himself say, shaking his head back and forth. "I won't turn my back on Hermione," he said adamantly.

"Centuries of fine breeding, all thrown away," his father snarled. "And for what, Theodore? A mudblood who didn't even know who you were."

Theo felt his grip on his wand loosen as his father disappeared, replaced with a vision of Hermione. "Theodore Nott?" she asked, her voice high and beautiful, like a siren's call. "Who even is he? I wouldn't be with you if I didn't feel so _obligated_ ," she sneered at him, enjoying belittling him. "You are nothing more to me than a charity case, Theo Nott. Like a house elf," she giggled. He could feel his resolve weakening, his shoulders drooping, wondering how she knew exactly what to say.

"Theo!" the _real_ Hermione shouted from somewhere behind him. "The spell, Theo! You have to perform the charm!"

He blinked as he registered her voice, before his attention was pulled back in by the shade.

"I can't believe you honestly thought we were going to be together forever," the horcrux laughed, throwing her head back, showing off her neck. "You're tainted, Theo, and I am going to get sick of you eventually. You're a disgusting half-breed. To think that I, Hermione Granger, would ever willingly be with a werewolf..."

Theo clenched his teeth tightly as realization snapped into place, his resolve steely. There was no way that _his_ Hermione would ever speak that way about werewolves, and he was finally able to see the horcrux for what it really was. An evil thing that had preyed on his insecurities and weaknesses, delving into his psyche over the weeks he'd been wearing it. Raising his wand, he sneered at the fake Hermione. " _Fiendfyre_ ," he said, carefully twisting his wand, watching as the magic flames ate the locket alive.

The bit of soul within the horcrux screamed and fought, shrill and raging, but it was no match for the cursed flames that was lapping it up. It seemed to go on for an eternity, but Theo held firm, no matter how much strength it took him to keep control over the flames. Finally, once he was certain it was gone, he ended the spell. Immediately, he could feel how exhausted he was.

Arms wrapped around his middle and he could feel Hermione press her face against his back. She was shaking and it took a few seconds for him to register that she was crying. Turning around, he held her tightly against him. "What's the matter?" he asked, worried about her. "It's done. It's gone," he said with a half smile.

She pulled back to look him in the eyes. "Oh, it was so horrible," she said, her words coming out in a rush. "You know that I don't think those kind of things, right? I would never, Theo. I could never get sick of you. I don't think that way about you, and I don't think of you as a charity case," she blubbered away, fat tears rolling down her cheeks.

Theo smiled at her, cupping her jaw gently. "I know, I know you don't think that way," he explained. "That's how I knew it was fake...what drove me to destroy it. You aren't like that."

"Please Theo," she begged. "I don't feel obligated to be with you, don't you know that? I love you," she said, honesty clear on her face.

She was so _sure_ of herself when he said it that he was temporarily stunned. There was no question in her voice. He could feel his heart soaring at the promise, thrilled that she might actually feel the same way about him as he did about her. Unable to help himself, he pressed his lips to hers in an intense kiss, deepening it immediately so that their tongues could slip against one another in a battle of dominance, Hermione yielding to him immediately. She tasted salty like her tears, but sweet like Hermione, something that was so uniquely her and something that he could never get enough of. He tangled his fingers into her hair, holding her against him tightly, never wanting to let her go. And how could he, when she was his mate?

He vaguely registered Potter clearing his throat before retreating back into the tent to give the pair some privacy. Theo had nearly forgotten the other man was there at all, and so he was grateful to have Hermione all to himself for a moment.

When he pulled away, they were both gasping for breath. "I love you, too," he answered back, just as sure as she had been. " _Mine_ , my mate," he whispered, utterly in awe of what fate had chosen for him, but selfish enough to never let it go.

He kissed her again.


	30. Chapter 30

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! Some eagle eyed reviewers have asked about the taboo - let's just pretend like it doesn't exist in this one? It won't be a plot point, at least. So I am going to let them let the Voldemorts fly, haha! I am really excited for the next chapters! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty (!) and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-one soon!

* * *

The week after the horcrux was destroyed felt like a weight had been lifted from all of their shoulders. Theo had promised that having something go there way for once would give them a sense of accomplishment, and he had been absolutely right. Everything seemed a little bit lighter now that another part of Voldemort had been killed.

Hermione had even been convinced by the two boys to break into a grocery store overnight when they stumbled by a little village to get some food. While they didn't have any muggle money to pay them back with, she still left a small stack of sickles and galleons, hoping that the shopkeeper in the morning would realize that they were _real_ gold and silver, and maybe find some place where they could get money for them.

Reviewing their haul of food when they returned to the tent filled the trio with giddy joy, stomachs clenching at the sight of so much food. Theo happily tore into a brightly colored package of beef jerky, moaning when he took his first bite. Grabbing one of the Cadbury chocolate bars next, he sunk into one of the chairs by the cast iron stove. "Muggles might be onto something with all this food," he said, sounding content and impressed. "This seems better than any Hogwarts feast."

"We should try not to eat too much," Hermione said, between delicate bites of cheese and day old baguette. "So we don't get sick."

Harry slumped into the chair across from them, digging into a packet of crisps. "Agreed. And we don't want to blow it all in one night," he agreed. "Who knows when we will be able to get anymore food. _Fuck_ , I forgot how good crisps were. I never want to eat another rabbit again."

Theo got a mischievous look on his face, before reaching behind him to pull something out of the pocket of his jeans. He waved a narrow bottle of whiskey at them. "I got us a little extra," he grinned at the two Gryffindors. Elegant fingers twisted off the top, before taking a long pull from it. "Salazar, that _burns_ on the way down," he coughed out, before tossing the bottle to Harry. "Careful Potter, that'll put hair on your chest."

The other boy ran his fingers through his hair, looking at the whiskey skeptically.

"What?" Theo questioned, with that classic Slytherin drawl. "Afraid you'll catch lycanthropy? Don't worry, Hermione hasn't gotten it yet." He rolled his eyes.

"That's not it, Nott," Harry countered with a roll of his own eyes. "Just wondering how you found the cheapest whiskey possible in the whole store." He removed the cap, before taking a pull of his own.

He passed the bottle onto Hermione, who took a delicate sip, sputtering and coughing when the brown liquid hit the back of her throat. It really was terrible, but it chased away the cold and filled her with a bit of euphoria, for a while anyway.

The three of them spent the evening passing the bottle between themselves until the whiskey was all gone and they were all a little bit drunk. Hermione's eyes were growing heavy while Theo's fingers carded through her hair, lulling her to sleep. Looking at her friend, she wondered if Harry was lonely and said it out loud before she could stop herself. "Do you miss Ginny, Harry?"

Her best friend blushed brightly, but shook his head back and forth. "No, I just hope she's safe, wherever she is," he explained, looking down at the hands in his lap. "It would be nice to have someone...like the two of you do...but, Ginny's not that person for me." He looked like he wanted to say _more_ but ended up holding back, so Hermione didn't press. Instead, she just let the feeling of Theo's fingers send her off to sleep, her eyes too heavy to keep open for a second longer.

...

She woke up suddenly, dry eyes snapping open to stare at the fabric of the tent's ceiling. Realizing that none of them had even managed to make it into the bunk beds not even ten feet away was a bit embarrassing, but she had other things to worry about at that moment. Like what it was that had woken her.

There was a noise coming from the clearing. Sitting up with a gasp, she hissed at Theo and Harry to wake up, trying to ignore the throbbing in her head. Of course the one night that they let go for a little bit and didn't keep watch would be the night that something went wrong with the warding, letting in an intruder. Merlin, she could smack Theo for plying them with cheap whiskey!

Wand drawn, she crept towards the entrance to the tent, gasping in surprise at what she saw. "Ronald?" she asked, looking at the friend who had abandoned them, standing proudly in the clearing, smiling like nothing was wrong. "How did you get back here?"

"The thing Dumbledore gave me," he said with a grin. "I don't really know what happened, but a ball of light came out of it, and I just...apparated and it brought me here...but, that's not important. Look what I have!" he said waving the sword in his right hand eagerly.

"Is that...the sword of Gryffindor?" Harry asked, still adjusting to the bright sunlight.

"Yes!" Ron announced cheerfully. "I found it just out here in the middle of the forest, almost right away after I left you guys. I've been trying to find my way back to you since then. I regretted it almost immediately, I swear."

His words were just a little bit too convenient for Hermione's liking. Leveling her wand towards his face, she couldn't stop the mistrustful frown on her face. " _Why_ did you have to save me from the troll in first year?" she asked, knowing that only Ron and Harry would know the real reason she'd been in the bathroom that Halloween to begin with.

"Oi! 'Mione! What are you playing at?" he asked, taking a step back in confusion.

"Answer the question," she demanded.

"I said that...that you were a bloody nightmare and that it was no wonder you didn't have any friends," Ron answered, his good mood completely evaporated, remembering the awful things that he had once said about her.

Hermione relaxed then, confident that it really was Ron. "Sorry, it just seemed a little suspicious is all," she tried to explain, not wanting it to see like she was doubting him. "You just showing up out of the blue like that."

"Well, it's alright," he said, an inkling of hope rekindling itself. "I've got the sword, so we can finally get rid of the locket, right? You said that it would have basilisk venom in it still...since Harry used it to kill the one in the Chamber of Secrets?"

Hermione was impressed that he'd been paying enough attention to her excitedly shared research to store that away for future use. It would be helpful to have the goblin-made sword so that they could dispatch any horcruxes that they found in the future. They couldn't just rely on Theo to use _fiendfyre_ to kill every one of them, not when she saw the toll it took on the werewolf.

"We actually managed to get rid of it last week," Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck, awkwardly. "Well, I say we, but Theo really did the heavy lifting. He used _fiendfyre_ to take it out."

Ron's face began to turn an ugly shade of red. Throwing the sword down on the ground, he didn't bother hiding the hurt in his eyes. "Well, I guess you bloody well didn't need me anyway," he snarled, feeling insecure now that his chance to swoop in and play the hero had evaporated before him. "I thought you said it was too dangerous."

"I said that we could use it as a last resort," Hermione said, unable to properly describe how desperate the three of them had been for something to just go right for once.

"I don't know why I even came back in the first place!" he said, throwing his hands up in the air, ranting away.

Hermione was distracted by Theo grabbing her wrist. "We aren't alone," he said suddenly, gaining her attention immediately. "Greyback is here," he added, looking around the clearing wildly, wondering where the older werewolf was lurking. She looked up at her boyfriend and saw real, wild fear reflected in his eyes for the first time since they'd been on the run.

Barely having time to process what he'd said, their wards began to cackle at the edges, before falling down. A group of snatchers appeared from behind the trees, with one stepping forward. "Oh, look at what we've found here," he said eagerly, showing off a mouthful of dying teeth. "What would you four be doing out here in the woods?"

"Run!" Theo shouted, before grabbing Hermione's hand and pulling her along behind him. She was immediately stumbling, but still making it along through the forest next to her boyfriend, too concerned with getting away to worry too much the scratches she'd be left with. The werewolf was really quite fast with his long legs, but Hermione was able to keep up, running on pure adrenaline pounding through her veins. She couldn't hear anything, the sound of blood rushing through her ears was deafening.

She was staring ahead, focused on the light streaming through the trees that she didn't even notice the raised root until it was too late. Her foot snagged on it and her hand was ripped from Theo's, before she fell down hard on the ground, her face shoved into the leaves. Hermione tried to scramble up so that she could keep going, only to be lifted up by her hips.

At first Hermione thought it might be Theo come back to get her, but then she was hauled against a much larger body than her boyfriend's. Looking down at the arms that were tight around her middle, Hermione couldn't stop the scream that was wrenched from her throat. "Theo!" she cried, until a grimy hand was clamped over her mouth.

Wild eyes found the Slytherin coming back for her. Even though she would have prefered he save himself, there was a selfish part of her that was glad he came back for her. Seeing the stricken look in his dark blue eyes, Hermione didn't have to guess who had a hold of her.

She tried to kick him, but the man just chuckled deep in his chest before shoving his face into the curve of her shoulder. "You still haven't marked your mate, pup," Greyback's voice cut in the silence, making a shiver of fear up Hermione's spine. He ground himself against her, enjoying the way Theo bristled at how the other werewolf was handling her. "Do you need your alpha to show you how to handle her?"

Theo was practically growling at the sight of Hermione struggling in Greyback's arms, but before he could do anything, the other snatchers were showing up, easily grabbing Theo. Harry and Ron had been easily contained as well, struggling fruitlessly against their own jailors.

"How did you manage to get both of them, Fenrir?" the man asked, wearing the sword of Gryffindor on his hip.

"I'm better than all of you combined," Fenrir drawled with a smirk, still not letting Hermione go, laughing at the murderous look in Theo's eyes.

"Well, you might have got two of them, but I think I got the big prize," the other snatcher said with a smirk. Walking over towards Harry, he pushed back her friend's fringe, showing off the lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. "I think it's time to take this lot to the higher ups, collect my prize," he added, with a shark like grin that had Hermione's stomach sinking in fear.


	31. Chapter 31

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am really excited to share this chapter, mostly because I hope that you will like how I've adjusted canon events. I just can't wait to see what you think of it, so I won't ramble on for too long here! Only five chapters left! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-one and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-two in a few days!

* * *

They apparated to a rather large looking house, but kept on the outside of a large wrought iron fence. After waiting a few moments, the gates swung open all on their own and Fenrir was leading the way up the gravel drive, pulling Hermione along with him.

"Malfoy Manor," Theo said glumly to Hermione when he caught her eye.

She wasn't sure if he was trying to give her some level of comfort or telling her something else, but it only amplified her fears more. She wondered again about his friendship with Draco Malfoy, and if he had played here as a child, or if he had spent summers here as a teenager, flying around the grounds. Did Theo have happier times here that would now be marred by whatever was about to happen?

The doors of the great manor were opened, revealing an annoyed looking Bellatrix Lestrange. Hermione watched out of the corner of her eye as Theo stiffened seeing the other witch. "What do you want?" Bellatrix snarled, looking at the dirty snatchers with little interest. "You're supposed to bring them to the Ministry, you imbeciles."

"I think you'll want to see who we've found," the lead snatcher said, proudly puffing out his chest. "We thought these prisoners might be above out paygrade. But if you want us to take them to the Ministry and let Yaxley handle them..." he trailed off, vaguely threateningly.

"Well?" Bellatrix said, taking her foot impatiently. "Tell me who you fucking found then!" she screeched.

Fenrir stepped forward, pulling Hermione to rest against his chest, leaving one massive arm around her waist. He used his hand to grip her jaw, turning her to face Bellatrix Lestrange. "I found a very pretty prize out in the forest," he said with a laugh. He ran his thumb against her lips, making Hermione recoil in horror, struggling to get out of his grasp. Taking advantage of her unrestrained legs, she tried to kick at his ankles, hoping that he would let her go. It was in vain.

"Stop touching her like that," Theo snarled from beside them, drawing Bellatrix's attention to him.

The witch's face was transformed by a sadistic smirk while she crossed the distance to the young pureblood. Looking up into his hateful stare, she made a little clicking noise with her tongue. "Oh, little Theodore, your father has been looking _everywhere_ for you," she cooed in her little baby voice. " _Poor, poor_ Alfred Nott has been worried sick...and to think, you've been off cavorting around in the woods with a _filthy_ mudblood!"

She turned back to face Fenrir, completely ignoring the snatcher who was in charge. "Well, bring them inside then," she snarled, before turning around and marching back inside Malfoy Manor. "Cissy!" she shouted once they were in the atrium. "We have guests! Bring Draco down here, now!" she commanded.

It didn't take long before the entire Malfoy family was assembled, looking gaunt and warry. Lucius Malfoy, who had always taken great care with his appearance, looked disheveled and exhausted, but Hermione couldn't find it within her to feel bad for him.

Draco's eyes widened when they landed on the group of people now in his living room, lingering on Theo and then her. He looked like he might retch in front of them, from nerves or something else, she wasn't entirely sure. "Come here, Draco," Bellatrix ordered, wrapping her arm tightly in the crook of his elbow pulling them forward. "This is Potter's mudblood isn't it? And that would make these two Potter and Weasley, right?" she cooed, pulling him to look at Ron and Harry. "We don't want to make a mistake by calling the Dark Lord if it isn't them...we wouldn't want to make a mistake," she hissed, shoving him forward to get a good look at the boys.

"Draco-" Theo croaked, looking at his friend, hoping to convey...something. Not quite begging for mercy, but maybe for more time.

"Be quiet, you _mutt_ ," Bellatrix barked at Theo.

Hermione could feel the dangerous growl that bubbled up in Fenrir's chest at the slur, realizing that he didn't care for werewolves to be talked about that way, and probably cared even more that it was one of his _pups_ being disparaged. While he was certainly a villain, Hermione couldn't say that Fenrir hadn't taken an interest in all the wizards he'd changed, even if they hadn't asked for it.

"Watch _your_ mouth, Bellatrix," Fenrir bit out, not caring one lick for what Bellatrix thought of herself, his grip on Hermione loosening a bit.

"You don't speak to me that way you mangy _dog_ ," she snarled right back, staring at the irate werewolf down despite being much shorter than him. "The Dark Lord will hear about this, and maybe he will let me put you down finally," she added, turning away from him, not bothering to watch her back, apparently so confident that he wouldn't touch her. When she did, her eyes settled on the sword that was worn on one of the snatcher's waists. Eyes wide and wild, she stalked over to him, grabbing the hilt in her hand. "Where the _fuck_ did you get this?" she demanded.

"They had it," the man said, not impressed with the way he was being interrogated. "And I figure it's mine now, so hands off the goods, love," he said, attempting to step away from her, but to no avail.

"I will not," she argued back, pulling the sword from him. "This sword is _mine_! They must have stolen it from my vault," she said, cheeks made all the more hollow from the tight way that she held her mouth. Shouldering Draco aside, she looked between Harry and Ron. "Which one of you took it from my vault, huh? Did you think you'd get away with it? What _else_ did you take?"

"We didn't take anything you crazy bitch," Ron answered, his head held high, even though he understood the risk in mouthing off to the woman. Hermione watched as he flinched when Bellatrix slapped him across the face, leaving a red welt behind.

Spinning on her heel, she looked to Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy. "I'm more certain than ever that this is Potter, his mudblood and their blood traitor sidekick," she said grimly. "But we mustn't call the Dark Lord until we get this straightened out. I need to know if they _took_ anything else."

"Of course, Bella," Narcissa said, her mouth pinched tightly. "Draco, come back here," she added, holding her arms open for her sniveling son, only Draco couldn't budge from where he was standing, staring at Harry with hopelessness in his grey eyes.

Bellatrix had her wand out and pointed at Hermione in an instant. "If you... _insist_ on lying, blood traitor," she said with a smirk, "I am sure we could get the mudblood to talk. A little cruciatus curse, and I am sure I can get her filthy mouth talking," she finished, looking into Hermione's defiant eyes. Shifting to look at Fenrir again, she ordered the werewolf to let her go. "Fenrir, unhand her. I want to speak with this one, girl to girl."

"No!" Theo called out, sounding supremely concerned for Hermione's safety. "Don't you dare touch her, Bellatrix, or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?" Bellatrix taunted. "Your father would _thank_ me if I killed you here, stain that you are on his noble name." She spat on the floor, before returning her attention to Fenrir. "Fenrir. Unhand her."

"No," Fenrir said firmly, tightening his grip on her. "You can torture one of those two, but I won't let you touch her."

"Oh, does the mangy mutt have a crush?" Bellatrix teased, talking in her baby voice. "I bet you are just _salivating_ over her, aren't you? Don't worry, you can have first dibs at muddy when I'm done with her. I am sure she won't put up much of a fight." The dark witch grabbed at Hermione, perhaps hoping to pull her out of his grasp.

To her amazement, Fenrir stood his ground. "I won't let you hurt her," he said, pushing Hermione behind his back. She couldn't even begin to understand why he was standing up to Bellatrix against her, but she wasn't going to question it.

Bellatrix was not as patient and instead sent a cursed rope at Fenrir's neck, trying to choke the life right out of him. He fell to his knees, making the witch cackle in delight, while his fingers clawed at the rope, trying to get a little air.

"Please stop!" Hermione begged, desperately. Even if Fenrir was a bad guy, she didn't fancy seeing someone literally have the life choked out of them right before her eyes. Besides, he was protecting her. Theo began to thrash in the grasp of his own captor, eventually getting free, wrapping Hermione up in his arms.

Fenrir must have realized his struggle was futile because before she knew what was happening, he was launching himself at Bellatrix, knocking her down to the ground. Bellatrix was completely caught off guard, and fell backwards, her wand dropping to the ground, ending the spell. Fenrir took a great gasping breath, but didn't move from her.

Lucius stepped forward, looking like he was ready to take care of Fenrir. With one of their number under assault, the rest of the snatchers all brandished their wands, ready for a fight to get what they deserved - payment for bringing some many undesirables in. Harry and Ron were let go, and Hermione knew this was her chance to get free. Ducking down, she quickly snatched up Bellatrix's wand, holding onto it tightly.

She wasn't entirely sure who it was that cast the first spell, but the parlor of Malfoy Manor was plunged into chaos. Keeping close to Theo, she rushed over to Harry and Ron. The Malfoys only had two wands between them, but she had no illusions that any of the snatchers were on their side. Harry and Draco were still in some sort of staring match and she needed to get her friend's attention. "Harry, we need to go now!" she shouted.

Harry's hand suddenly reached out, grabbing Draco's hawthorn wand right out of his hands, looking amazed at how little resistance the other man had put up. Draco surged forward, his face pressed against Harry's ear and she wondered if Malfoy was trying to _hug_ him. Before she could puzzle out the bizarre scene in front of her, she was shocked by Fenrir grabbing her by the shoulder.

"A werewolf's mate is sacred," he said, looking serious and stern. He looked to Theo then. "And I will put my own kind before the Dark Lord every time. Go now, before you make me regret helping you," he said imperiously, showing off his true alpha colors. "And pup, don't forget to mark her!" he added with a bawdy grin.

"I won't," Theo stuttered out his promise. Wrapping his arm around Hermione tightly, he pulled her closer to Harry and Ron once again. "Hermione, we need to get out of here _now_."

Draco was finally breaking away from Harry. Her friend was looking at him in confusion. "Dobby!" he called out confidently, pleased when the little house elf popped into existence. "Take us out of here!" he nearly begged.

The little elf got a determined look on his face, offering his hand out to Harry. "Dobby is happy to help Harry Potter and friends," he said with a grin.

"No!" Bellatrix screamed, her voice sounding feral and incensed as she watched the group of teenagers wink out of existence with a bit of elf magic. The cry she made followed them out of the chaos that they left behind at Malfoy Manor, even to the tiny, sandy beach that they found themselves at.

Theo pulled Hermione into a hug immediately, pressing his face into her shoulder, taking several deep breaths to calm his galloping heartbeat, trying to convince himself that she was safe and okay. He couldn't believe that Fenrir would have helped them to get away, but he hadn't been the only one who had aided in their daring escape. Lifting his head, but not letting her go, his blue eyes searched Harry's face. "What did Draco tell you?" he croaked out, perhaps wondering if it was the last time he'd see his friend alive.

"He told me to call for Dobby...that he was still technically a Malfoy house elf," Harry said dumbly. "He helped us?"


	32. Chapter 32

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am really pleased that you liked Fenrir's little twist. I am a big fan of Fenrir x Hermione, so I couldn't help myself. And, since it is Fenrir February, I will be posting a series of Fenrimione oneshots, hopefully next week if everything goes well, so check back for that if you are interested! You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-two and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-three soon!

* * *

After their daring escape at Malfoy Manor, Theo hadn't been able to physically let go of Hermione. He had to convince himself that she was safe within his arms, full of shame that he hadn't been able to protect her from being captured by Fenrir Greyback. Even worse, the directive from Fenrir to mark his mate was clanging around in his head like some unbearable gong, until he couldn't focus on anything else besides the need to make Hermione his - his _forever_.

Vaguely, he recognized that they were in friendly territory. _Shell Cottage_ , Ron had said, the home of his eldest brother and sister-in-law. Theo knew that he had an unlikely ally in Bill Weasley seeing as the gangly cursebreaker had also been attacked by Greyback. Even though he was spared the curse of lycanthropy, the eldest Weasley still had some more lupine urges and could understand Theo's behavior. Fleur was also part veela, so he knew she would understand his innate need to be with his mate.

They were shuffled into the kitchen of the tiny cottage, eagerly telling the couple of all that they had just endured at Malfoy Manor, shaking with unspent adrenaline from their brief duel. The tiny house elf was busy fusing over Harry Potter, trying to ascertain that he was unharmed.

Theo had pulled Hermione into his lap, holding her snugly against his chest and pressed his face into the crook of her neck, breathing in the smell of her, wishing that they could just slip away to somewhere more quiet. He sat in a daze, so completely wrapped up in Hermione that he almost didn't register Ron's disgusted looks.

"What the _fuck_ is he on about, Hermione?" the younger redhead finally demanded, arms crossed over his chest in consternation. "Now is not the time for PDA - you were just almost bloody tortured!"

"He's my mate," Hermione answered confidently, using one hand to gently glide through his hair, attempting to sooth the werewolf's worries. "He can't help it..."

"I'm sorry, Hermione." Theo groaned into her skin, before pressing light kisses to her exposed neck. His arms tightened around her waist once again, thinking about the way that Greyback had held her. He was insanely jealous - worried even - that someone might come in the way between him and his mate. "I can't stop thinking about what Greyback said."

"I just don't see why you have to kiss and stuff in front of us," Ron continued, looking at the pair of them with disgust in his eyes. "We have more important things to talk about right now."

"Ronald, it is instinctual for him," Fleur said smoothly, in that calming voice of her's. "He cannot help but reassure himself that his mate is okay, especially if she was attacked. We should give them time alone together, so that they can make their bond strong again."

The french woman's brother-in-law looked like he wanted to vomit from the idea of giving Hermione and Theo any time alone together, but before he could say anything hurtful, Bill was giving his opinion as well. "It is probably especially bad because you haven't marked her yet," he said, giving a concerned look to his brother's friend, making sure that she was comfortable in Theo's arms still. "I thought Remus would have talked to you about that."

"Oh, he talked to me about it alright, but I was trying to..." Theo trailed off, unsure of why he was trying to explain any of his reasoning to the Weasleys. It really wasn't their business that he was trying to be certain Hermione was ready for the decision that he was asking her to make. He was trying to be gentlemanly, and not take advantage of her hormones to get her to commit to him for the rest of their lives, no matter how prettily she would beg to him. It didn't matter anymore, though, because Theo didn't think he could stop himself from claiming her now. And he knew he better take her someplace more private before he laid her down on the table, uncaring of the audience that they had. "Yes, some privacy to reestablish our bond will be necessary."

"We have a guest room upstairs, if you'd like," Bill offered, looking increasingly uncomfortable with the whole discussion.

"No!" Theo answered, standing up and pulling Hermione against his body. "We can go outside - it will be better to be under the moon, anyway." He winced thinking about how awful that must sound to the rest of them.

"D'accord!" Fleur said, her cheeks turning a light pink color. "We will see you in the morning, then."

Theo did not have the time to wait around and hear Weasley complain more about him taking away Hermione to sleep under the stars on the beach. It was a far more romantic evening than what he would have imagined, if he was honest, and being on the beach felt too open to him. Instead, he pulled Hermione alone the tree line, until they were a few paces back and he was sure they wouldn't be seen, but they could still see the soft lights from the cottage filtering through the tree branches.

When he was certain they were well and truly alone with one another, Theo pulled her in for a quick kiss, groaning in appreciation when she immediately deepened it. Pulling back, he looked at her with desire in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Hermione," he apologized again, hating the way that he was rushing what should have been a lovely moment between the two of them. "I feel like I might go crazy if I don't mark you, and-" His words caught in his throat.

"There is nothing to be sorry for," Hermione said, being far too understanding of him. She was so much better than he deserved. Turning, she conjured a soft looking blanket to protect them from the forest floor. "I understand, Theo."

"This wasn't how I imagined it being. I wanted to wait until after the war was over...so that you would have plenty of time to think everything over. You wouldn't feel pressured to be with me," he said, feeling very sorry for himself.

Hermione grabbed his hand tentatively, before pulling him down to sit beside her on the blanket. "Stop apologizing," she commanded, unwilling to hear another minute of his pity party. "I don't need anymore time to think about it. I've actually wanted to do this for a long time now," she said quietly, before looking down at their joined hands. "I love you, Theo, and no amount of thinking it over will change my mind. You are my mate and I want to be with you - desperately."

Everything except for Hermione faded away as soon as he heard her reveal her feelings to him. To know in such certain terms that she was feeling the same way about him as he did about her was making his heart beat wildly in his ribcage, pounding. Needing her to know he felt the same, he pressed her back against the blanket, brushing a wild curl behind her ear. "I love you, too, Hermione Granger," he confessed, before pressing his lips to hers in a possessive kiss.

He could have spent the whole evening kissing her under the stars on the little blanket they had set up, but his would not let him forget that he had more pressing issues to attend to. His little mate was nearly hurt that day, and he needed to mark her, to take her under his protection, so that he could be certain she was would be well looked after, so that everyone would know that she was his. Hermione hooked one leg around him, pulling him closer to her, making him groan low in his throat.

Breaking away from the kiss, he looked down at her. They had spoken vaguely about what the mating would entail in the past, but not all of the specifics. "Hermione, I am going to mark you," he promised, enjoying the shiver of delight that ran through her body at the thought of it. "When I finish, I will bite your neck right here," he said, tapping at the skin on her neck reverently. "And once that's done...it's an unbreakable bond. We won't be able to undo it. Are you _sure_?" he asked, even though he was fairly sure he would go mad if she said no.

"Yes, yes I'm sure," she said, breathing heavily, her arms wrapped around his neck. "Merlin, I just might go mad if you make me wait another second longer," she said with a pout on her lips.

Theo did not need to be told a second time. Eager fingers pulled her jumper up over her head and her jeans down her legs. He could barely force himself to stop touching her, not even when he was only doing so to take off his own clothes. The night air was cold, but Hermione's body was warm and inviting. She wrapped her arms around him, fingers delving into his short hair to pull him down for a kiss, the other smoothing up the skin of his back, giggling at the goose flesh he was sporting.

He was far too intrigued by the feel of her heat radiating from between her legs. Cradled by spread thighs, he was almost embarrassed by the way he was thrusting against her clothed core, like some kind of dog. Pulling away from her sumptuous lips, he kissed a path down her jaw, down her neck, to the swell of her breasts, still hidden behind nude colored cloth. Hermione must have taken pity on him, because she was reaching behind herself to unclasp the bra, revealing hard, rosy nipples to him.

Wrapping his mouth around one, he loved hearing the way she moaned when his tongue touched the little point. Using his hand, he softly rolled her nipple with his thumb, so that it wouldn't feel left out. Once she was writhing under him, Theo kissed further down her body, past her belly button and the curve of her hips, until his nose was pressed against her covered core. Hooking his thumbs under the cotton cloth, he slid her knickers down her legs, revealing her wet flesh to him.

He pressed a quick kiss to her button at the top of her sex, before licking tentatively at her. Merlin, he promised himself that at some point in his future, he would take the time to fully appreciate her, but he wasn't sure he could hold off much longer. Lapping at the pink flesh, Hermione's whines only drove him more wild with desire. Very familiar with what she liked at this point in their relationship, it didn't take long for him to push her over the edge of orgasm, revealing in the sound of his name pulled from her lips.

Theo hurried to push his own boxer briefs down his legs, knowing that he couldn't wait any longer. With his hands on Hermione's hips, he encouraged her to flip over onto her hands and knees, her arse in the air presenting herself to him. He wished that their first time could have been face to face, but he knew that his wolf would accept no other position. "Ready?" he asked, surprised by the graveley quality of his tone.

"Yes," Hermione answered, her breath catching when she felt him align himself with her core.

As soon as he had permission, he was pressing forward, eyes shut tight in ecstasy while he allowed her body to stretch and accommodate him. She felt better than anything he could have imagined when he was finally fully seated inside her, his chest pressed against her back. He held her tightly to him even as he began to move, groaning when she leaned further down, to muffle her cries into the blanket, enjoying the change of angle more than he thought was possible.

He kept his face pressed against her shoulder, whispering words of praise and encouragement to his sweet mate, telling her how much he loved her over and over again, promising that she wouldn't regret it, and that he would prove himself to her. His thrusts soon grew more shallow and he knew he was close. Wanting her to come with him, he used his fingers to circle around the button at the top of her sex, sliding against sodden flesh until he could feel her core pulsing around him. It was enough to send him over the edge after her.

His teeth were biting down on her shoulder before he even realized it, joining their bodies and their souls. She was his - marked for everyone to see - and nothing would be able to separate them now.


	33. Chapter 33

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am glad that you all liked the last chapter, with the mating finally happening, lol. We only have a few chapters left, unfortunately, so you know this is gonna be jam packed. I hope you enjoy what I've got this time. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions. Also, this week, I will be posting a lot of Fenrir x Hermione oneshots, so please check those out if you are interested.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-three and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-four soon!

* * *

The following morning, Hermione would have liked nothing more than to spend the morning languishing in Theo's strong arms, feeling his body pressed against hers. The night before had been far better than she ever imagined and her heart was exploding with the knowledge that Theo was well and truly hers forever now. Instead, she found herself seated by the smug werewolf at Fleur's breakfast table, eagerly shoveling perfectly scrambled eggs into her mouth while Ron gave Theo a death glare.

"These are really delicious, Fleur," Hermione complimented the other witch. "Thank you."

"So, while you two were away yesterday," Harry said, clearing his throat, trying not to look too embarrassed, even though _everyone_ knew what Hermione and Theo had gotten up to the day prior. "Ron and I talked over what happened yesterday at Malfoy Manor."

"Yeah, like, didn't you notice how freaked out Bellatrix was that we might have been inside of her vault?" Ron asked, taking a bite of some crusty bread. "She was furious about it, enough to torture us before calling You-Know-Who to get to the bottom of it."

"We were thinking...what could she have in there that would scare her so much that she wouldn't even tell Voldemort about having found _me_?" Harry asked, eyes wild and bright. "Maybe she was meant to hold onto something for him...maybe even a horcrux."

"So we were thinking...we need a way to get into her vault," Ron said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"That's brilliant!" Hermione said to the two boys, impressed that they had been able to puzzle that out all on their own. "So...getting into Gringotts...how is that done?"

"Bill, can you help us out?" Ron asked, looking to his older brother for assistance. "Don't you have some kind of like...goblin friends that can let us in?"

Bill snorted, looking at Ron as if he'd grown another head. "I'm sorry it won't be that easy, Ron," Bill said, rolling his eyes. "Even if the goblins _had_ friends, they take security extremely seriously, especially with people like the Lestranges. Their vaults will be in the lowest levels of the bank, with _every_ measure of security - I don't even know all of them. They wouldn't _dream_ of letting you in to one of them."

"I know about all the measures of security," Theo said, looking between the room full of Gryffindors. "I've been going to Gringotts with my father since I was a child. We can get into Gringotts."

"What do you suggest?" Hermione asked, biting her lower lip, looking extremely concerned about the prospect after the bleak picture that Bill had painted.

"We will just walk in and pretend like we are going to my vault," Theo said coolly. "And then we can make a pitstop at the Lestrange vault. The rest of you can just put on a glamour so they don't recognize you."

"And the thief's downfall?" Bill asked, sounding a bit skeptical.

Theo shrugged his shoulders. "We can sort that out when we get there," he lied smoothly, knowing that the trio would not enjoy his methods for getting through it.

Once Harry had heard Theo's plans to get into the Lestrange vault, nothing could dissuade him from going along with it. Even Ron was so focused on finding the next horcrux that he was waving off Bill and Fleur's protestations. Somehow, the four teenagers found themselves hidden in the alley behind Gringott's with Hermione hastily preparing glamours for all of them.

If the goblins thought it was odd for Theodore Nott to show up flanked by several other people, they didn't say anything. Instead, they didn't even look up from their ledgers until Theo was towering over the Head Goblin's desk, looking down at him with an imperious sneer, reminding Hermione very much of Draco Malfoy or even Professor Snape. "I would like to be taken to my vault immediately."

"Without your father, young mister Nott?" the Goblin asked, still scratching away with his pen.

"Of course without my father. I _am_ of age, aren't I?" Theo snapped back at him. "Now take me to my vault or does the Nott family need to cease business with Gringotts bank?" Threatening to remove what was certainly a sizable fortune from the bank got the goblin's full attention and before Hermione knew it, they were being ushered into a tiny cart, all four of them and the goblin.

Hermione was happy to be next to Theo, with his arm held tightly around her so that the jostling of the cart didn't affect her too much, but she still had to bite her tongue every time that Harry's knees jammed into her spine. She gripped Theo's arm when she noticed the huge waterfall that they were barreling towards. "What's that?" she shouted to him over the metallic sound of the wheels on the tracks.

"Thief's downfall," Theo said tersely. "Don't worry, I will handle it." He already had his wand out, resting against his knee while they barreled closer and closer towards the waterfall.

When they went through the water and Hermione could feel the glamour slipping off of her. Unfortunately for Hermione, Harry and Ron, the goblin noticed it immediately. "Undesirables! You dared to bring Undesirables into the Gringotts? We goblins want no part in your Ministry's wars!"

" _Imperio_!" Theo cast the spell, before anyone had any time to react. They all watched as a pleased, unbothered sort of look come over his face.

"Theo!" Harry scolded with a shocked look on his face. "That's an Unforgivable curse."

Hermione turned to look at her friend, biting her lower lip. "Harry, in this case, I think it's necessary, no matter how detestable I find it. Desperate times call for desperate measures," she said, feeling rather bad about it. Still, she knew that this was the only way they would be able to get the horcrux if it was in the Lestrange vault.

The boys looked like they wanted to protest more, but then they really considered the options before them. If they were going to get the horcrux that they hoped was in the vault, this was the way it was going to have to be.

The air grew colder and danker the deeper they got into the vault, until Hermione swore she could feel the change in pressure around them building. Just when she thought it was impossible for them to go any lower, the cart screeched to a halt outside of the Nott family vault. They stepped out of the cart and onto the stone platform. The goblin stepped forward, ready to place his hand on the door to let them in, only to have Theo give him a different command. "We need to make a quick stop off somewhere else. Take us to the Lestrange vault," he said sternly.

The goblin brought them three vaults down, hesitating for a moment, as if he were trying to fight off the curse, but in the end, he was unable to stop the compulsion from letting them in. "I'll wait out here with him," Theo told the other three. "But be careful - they will have all sorts of curses on their things. Try not to touch anything."

The three Gryffindors entered the vault cautiously, amazed by all the galleons that they found just laying about inside. Harry grimaced as soon as he crossed the threshold. "It's definitely in here," he said, gritting his teeth.

"Accio horcrux!" Hermione tried, hoping that it would bring the cursed object to her hand, but to her disappointment, it didn't.

Harry was looking around wildly, being as he was most attuned to Voldemort's magical signature, trying to find the horcrux. It was practically singing to him, eager to take advantage of someone after being locked away for so long. Finally, his eyes settled on a golden cup balanced precariously at the top of a pile of candelabra. He was about to begin climbing when Hermione remembered the warning.

"Wait!" she called, grabbing his shoulder. "Theo said not to touch anything," she reminded him, before grabbing a bobby pin out of her hair. Transfiguring it into a long sort of hook, she handed it to her bespectacled friend to try and fish the Cup down.

It worked better than expected and before she knew it, the golden thing was clattering down to the floor. Triumphant, Harry picked it up with a grin on his face, only to immediately drop it, hissing in pain. "It burned me!" Harry groaned, watching in horror as the cup quickly split in two. Bending down to pick up the real Cup, he hissed at the burning pain in his hand, only to want it continue to split. Every time one of the fake cups were touched it would split again and again.

"We need to get out of here!" Hermione called, realizing that it was copying itself at an exponential rate and the window they had to safely escape was growing narrower and narrower. Pushing Ron and Harry ahead of her, Hermione began to run towards the entrance of the huge vault, until her foot caught on one of the duplicate cups, making her fall. Sprawled out, she cried out when the metal made contact with her skin, burning her.

"Hermione!" Ron called, falling back to help pick her up. Hermione was grateful to have his help to right her to her feet, holding onto his hand while they fought to catch up with Harry, both incredibly aware of the cascade of fake cups that was closing in behind them.

Just as they could see the entrance to the vault again - Theo looking worriedly inside for them - Hermione could feel hope surging her in her chest. She was full of relief when she saw Harry exit the vault with the horcrux safely in hand. A laugh bubbled up in her throat when she realized that they had actually done it! They had gotten another horcrux!

Her and Ron were just about to make it out of the vault themselves when she felt Ron's hand ripped out of her grip. Turning her head, she watched as his legs were quickly swallowed up from the fake cups, steadily piling up around him until all she could see of him was his reaching hand.

"Weasley!" Theo growled, taking a few steps into the vault, pushing Hermione to safely. He grabbed onto the redhead's forearm and gave a great heave, pulling him from the metal pile. When Ron was free he was gasping for air, blue eyes looking wildly at Theo. The werewolf didn't give up and quickly pulled the other man to safety, slamming the door to the vault behind him.

Ron sat on the ground, breathing heavily, before looking up at his competition for Hermione's heart with confusion on his face. "You saved me," he said, looking at the Slytherin with admiration in his eyes. "Thank you," he said sincerely, forcing himself to acknowledge Theo as an ally for the first time.

Theo gave a tight nod. "You would have done the same for me," he said, even though it was unclear if that would be the case. Still, he wouldn't throw Weasley's begrudging respect back in his face. "Let's take care of this fucking thing right now," he said, keeping a wary eye on the goblin, making sure that the imperious curse hadn't lifted.

Harry gratefully dropped the cup on the ground, glad that it had stopped duplicating itself. Theo conjured the _fiendfyre_ dispassionately, the horcrux's words no longer having any sway over him now that he was certain that Hermione was his mate for true. The death of the horcrux seemed almost anticlimactic after the trouble it had been to get it out of the vault, but none of the teenagers would complain about a little simplicity.

Once it was gone, they all clambered back into the cart, ready to get back to the surface. Hermione ducked under Theo's arm, wanting to be as close as possible to her mate, glad that she had them. "When we get back to the lobby, we will need to run," he told them. "The other goblins will notice something is amiss right away."


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Things are definitely quickly winding down with this story, but I hope that you are still enjoying it. You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-four and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-five soon!

* * *

They were barely out of Gringotts by the time that Harry was clutching at the sides of his head, crying out from the pain of whatever it was that Voldemort was doing. Hermione was at his side in an instant, trying to reassure him that everything would be okay. "We have to get to Hogwarts _now_ ," Harry insisted, his green eyes darting around wildly. " _He_ is headed back there now. There is another horcrux hidden there and he knows that we've destroyed these. He wants to check it."

Hermione apparated them to the outskirts of Hogsmeade and lead them slinking through the side streets towards the Shrieking Shack, where they hoped to sneak in using the secret passageway. When they went by the Hog's Head pub, though, a familiar voice hissed at them. "You lot. Get over here now!"

It took them a few seconds, but they quickly realized that it was Dumbledore's brother - Aberforth - who owned the pub. The man ushered them inside, and immediately began scolding them for wandering around the small village when every wizard alive was looking for them. It was clear that Harry had a lot of questions that he wanted to ask the man, but there was no time to chat.

"We need to get into Hogwarts," Hermione told the grizzled barman, tersely, knowing that time was of the essence if Voldemort was on his way to the school like Harry claimed. They needed to _find_ the horcrux and destroy it before he even got there. "Can you help us?"

"I might know a way," Aberforth said with a hint of a smirk on his weathered face. "Though I would rather you turn away right now. My brother always thought himself more clever than he actually was."

But the four of them could not be deterred - they had come this far already, and it was impossible to turn back.

Hermione never would have expected the way to be by walking through a painting, lead by none other than Neville Longbottom himself, but when she walked out into the Room of Requirement, filled with familiar and friendly faces, she knew that they were back in Hogwarts for the first time in nearly a year. Immediately, everyone sprang into action, bolstered by the knowledge that Harry Potter was back. Exuberant calls went out over the Wizarding radio to call the Order of the Phoenix to action.

In the bustle as the students began to mobilize, Hermione almost didn't notice Harry crumpling down to his knees, clutching his scar in agony again. "He's close," he groaned, nearly physically ill from the pain. Hermione wrapped an arm around him, hoping to bring any measure of comfort to him. "He's going to the Shrieking Shack...to meet Snape. We should go there - try to head them off, or at least close the tunnel."

"But Harry, what about the horcrux?" she asked, biting her lower lip nervously.

"You and Theo should go find it," Ron said confidently. "Harry and I will go to the Shrieking Shack."

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, looking at Ron as if he had grown a second head due to how mature he was acting in the moment. She couldn't believe he would willingly want her to run off with Theo.

"Yeah," he said nodding his head. "Merlin knows you two swots will be able to figure it out, and Theo's the only one who can destroy it. Just...make sure that you keep her safe. She is my best friend," Ron added looking to Theo with respect. It was an unexpected moment, Ron finally realizing that she and Theo were meant to be with one another, and she and Ron were only destined to be friends.

The four teenagers wished each other good luck, but then Harry and Ron were off, running towards the entrance of the school. "What could this other horcrux be?" Hermione asked. "It has to be something significant. Voldemort is too self absorbed for it not to be."

"Well, the Cup belonged to Hufflepuff, and the locket to Slytherin," Theo said, pacing back and forth to help him think. "So...doesn't it stand to reason that the horcrux would belong to Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?"

"Not Gryffindor - he and Slytherin didn't get on at all. But I could see him using something from Ravenclaw," Hermione agreed. "What is some artifact of Ravenclaw's? She is sometimes depicted wearing thistle hairpins. Those would maybe be easily hidden around here."

"There's always Rowena's Diadem," a bright, optimistic voice startled the young lovers out of their conversation.

"Luna!" Hermione said, looking at the pale, blonde girl. "I didn't see you there. But isn't the Diadem, well...lost? And has been for centuries?"

"Well, yes, some people might call it lost, but maybe...it just needs to be found?" the girl offered, not really making much sense at all to the analytical girl. "I know who you could ask though - the Grey Lady."

"Why would the Grey Lady know?" Theo asked, looking at her, confused, realizing this was likely the first time that he'd ever talked to Luna Lovegood.

"Theo, we might as well try," Hermione said grabbing his hand. "It's better than nothing!"

Tracking down the Grey Lady was easier said than done. It seemed as if they were fighting the wrong way in the stream of students running in terror. The rest of the ghosts were ushering the younger ones to safety, but the older students seemed keen to fight. However the Grey Lady was suspiciously absent. The teenagers were unshakeable in their resolve, though, and eventually tracked her down looking depressed and forlorn.

"Excuse me! We need your help!" Hermione said, startling the woman out of her own thoughts. She looked ethereal and young and for the first time Hermione wondered just how she had died in the first place. "We are looking for the Lost Diadem of Ravenclaw. Do you know where it is?"

"You seek my mother's diadem?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.

Hermione was surprised that she hadn't realized that the Grey Lady was Rowena Ravenclaw's daughter, but stopped herself from reacting. She didn't want the slightly temperamental ghost to become upset with them and refuse to help. "Yes, we really need to find it," she confirmed.

"No," the woman responded, nostrils flaring. "I made a grave mistake once in the past helping another who sought it, and he _ruined_...tainted it with dark magic. I won't make the same mistake again." She looked resolute in her pronouncement, but at the same time, she all but confirmed that the Diadem was what they were looking for.

"We know about Tom Riddle," Hermione said, trying to gain a rapport with the woman. "We know about how he tricked you. He was very good at getting what he wanted...he was very good at manipulating people."

"Please, we want to destroy it," Theo said, stepping closer towards the spectre. "We know all about what he did to it and we want to get rid of the dark magic."

"You would know about dark magic...Slytherin," she spat at the werewolf, hurt and lashing out.

"You are right," Theo agreed, unflinching under the constant onslaught of prejudice against his house. "But you also know that means I am fully capable of keeping my word. I am one of the only people in this castle that can actually get rid of it, for good this time."

The Grey Lady looked at him hard for several beats of silence, before sighing. "Fine. But you already know where it is - it's where all forgotten things go in this castle," she said, resigned to put her trust in them that they would do as they say.

Theo and Hermione looked at one another, realization in their eyes. "The Room of Requirement," Hermione said, grimly, before turning on her heel and running in the direction of the stairs, with Theo hot on her tail. For once, all the staircases seemed to be working to help them get where they needed to be and they made it to the seventh floor in record time. Standing in front of the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy, they walked back and forth in front of it three times, until the doorway appeared.

Hermione was overwhelmed by the amount of things that were in the room. The junk that accumulated over the years...centuries even...stretched as far as she could see. This would be a monumental task, especially considering that they were under a bit of a time crunch.

Theo looked to be feeling the pressure too. He gave her a weak smile. "We could just...burn the whole place down?" he suggested with a laugh, making Hermione think he was at least halfway serious. When he saw the look on her face, though, he shook his head. "Okay, split up then? We should be able to find it quicker that way."

Nodding, Hermione quickly set out in one direction while her boyfriend left in the other. She wandered up and down through piles and piles of things that had long been forgotten by students over the years, never to be thought of again. She thought of Harry and his potions textbook the year prior and how it had been left here, untouched, she hoped.

Just when she was giving up hope, something glinting high up on an armoire caught her eye. Elated, she realized that it really was the Diadem. "Theo!" she shouted, hoping that he would be able to hear her despite the way all of the things in the room dampened noise in the room. "Theo, I've found it!" Eagerly, she used her wand to carefully levitate it down on the ground in front of her.

In the end, it didn't take long for Theo to find her. He was rounding the corner with his wand already drawn, skidding to a halt when he locked eyes with her. He looked at the diadem where it was resting on the ground. "It's a bit tragic that we are having to destroy so much history, isn't it?" he asked, looking at the elaborate silver and sapphire crown.

Hermione nodded. "It is, but it isn't us that destroyed it, not really," she said with a frown. "This was ruined the moment that Voldemort got his hands on it."

Nodding, Theo kept his wand trained on the pretty bauble, before conjuring the _fiendfyre_. The more he had performed the curse, the more control he gained over the fire. It was almost uneventful at this point to watch the black smoke that rose out of the diadem, spitting and crying out, another piece of Voldemort's soul railing at its mortality.

The relief that they felt once it was well and truly gone - leaving behind only a mangled looking piece of metal - was very temporary. Before they could even speak to one another, they heard Voldemort's voice clear as if he was standing next to them, announcing a one hour armistice during which they could collect their dead and consider which side they would rather be on. When Hermione heard him speak directly to Harry, taunting him to come out to the forest to face each other, she was struck with a bolt of fear.

"He won't be able to stop himself," she said, sounding miserable. "Harry has always been prone to sacrificing his own happiness for everyone elses'. We have to go try and stop him before he rushes off and gets himself killed."

Theo did not need any more convincing than that. Grabbing her hand tightly in his, they began weaving their way out of the Room of Requirement and into the deserted seventh floor hallway. Running down the stairs, they were immediately greeted by the sight of people in need of medical assistance, but they couldn't stop to help. Finding Harry and Ron was their top priority.


	35. Chapter 35

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I seriously cannot believe that we are very nearly at the end of this story. I am so glad that so many of you were happy to see it expanded. I had initially planned on stopping it after the end of sixth year, but I think this way is better. Now, we just have the epilogue left after this one. Ending stories is always so bittersweet, but I hope that you will read some of my other work in the future. I've just started a Rodolphus x Hermione story yesterday and I will be writing another Theo x Hermione, hopefully starting in April. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions!

Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-five and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-six soon!

* * *

After leaving the Room of Requirement, they had found Ron in the main entrance of the school, with tear tracks streaking down his dirty cheeks. Hermione had asked - demanded to know where Harry had gone, if Ron had really been so irresponsible as to let Harry go off into the forest to face Voldemort all on his own.

Ron had pulled her in for a hug, before tearfully explaining everything that had happened since they parted ways. "Snape is dead - Voldemort killed him to get control of the elder wand," Ron said, sounding defeated. "But he gave us memories that we watched and...well, Harry _is_ a horcrux. Dumbledore's known all this time and...he _has_ to die, Hermione."

She had shook her head, not wanting to believe the words that he was saying, even if it made so much sense. _Too_ much sense. "We could have gone with him," she insisted weakly, blubbering like a baby.

"No," Ron countered, with a forlorn look on his face. "You know he wouldn't have let us. And besides...we still need to kill the snake. I promised Harry I would."

Theo pressed his hand to her shoulder and Hermione knew in that moment that what Ron said was the truth, even if she couldn't bare the thought of never seeing Harry alive again. Even when she knew what was coming, it had been utterly heartbreaking to see him, limp body cradled by Hagrid while Voldemort gleefully announced that he was dead.

Her mate never left her side, not even when Voldemort tried welcoming some of them back. His father wouldn't meet Theo's glare, but she was confident he wouldn't have left her even if his relationship with his father was positive. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy had insisted that Draco join them, but to her surprise, he remained resolute, shaking his head while his stormy eyes kept darting back to Harry.

It had seemed hopeless.

But then all hell broke loose when Harry leapt to his feet, somehow not dead at all. She didn't have time to question what the hell had happened to him because the fighting was back on then. She would have time to celebrate with him later, once they had _won_.

The Death Eaters had been apparating away left and right, move convinced than ever that Harry Potter had some kind of _power_ over their Dark Lord, seeing as he'd been killed by him twice and come back to life just as many times.

She wasn't entirely sure how it had happened, but she had found herself separated from Theo and from Ron and Harry, dueling away with the Death Eater called Rowle. To her utter dismay, he was besting her, if only for the ferocity of curses he sent her way. The only reason she hadn't been killed was due to the fact that he didn't have very good aim, but it was only a matter of time before one of the deluge of killing curses he sent her way would strike true.

Any other day she was sure she would have lost their duel. But this day, she had a wand that had once belonged to Bellatrix Lestrange and it allowed her to cast with a ruthlessness her vinewood wand didn't. A severing hex was dangerous, yes, but she had never seen one fell a grown man before. Shaking with the realization that she'd killed a man, Hermione knew that she couldn't allow herself to relax.

It was nearly immediately after her duel with Rowle that she found herself trapped by the snake they had all been looking for, Nagini. The beast struck at her with an unnatural quickness, eager to kill her if it could. No matter what spells she sent its way, she couldn't kill it, stumbling backwards with each progressive exchange.

Finally, she had tripped back over some stairs, the hard marble digging into her back, and she was certain that it was the end for her. The snake reared its head, looming over her, and Hermione waited for the bite to come, but...

 _Godric_ , she had never been so happy to see Neville Longbottom in her life. Sword of Gryffindor in hand, he had decapitated the snake handily, leaving the last of Voldemort's horcruxes dead.

There wasn't even time to properly thank the now tall and lean young man, who was brimming with confidence that she had never seen before. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but she needed to get to Theo. Sprinting across the school, her feet followed an unknown path to her mate. It wasn't hard to find him even if she couldn't understand how she had done it.

Theo was dueling with his father, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Although his father might have been old and left frail after many months in Azkaban, that didn't mean his wandwork wasn't particularly vicious. He seemed to want to destroy his own son, no matter what it took. But, Theo was filled with just as much rage as his father was, and he was fighting for so much more. Hermione watched in horror as Theo _finally_ struck his father with a horrific looking curse. The older man had fallen to his knees, crumpled in agony, before he finally died.

Rushing into Theo's arms, the pair had remained together, fighting off random Death Eaters until they heard an inhuman screech. Everyone turned to watch as the man known as Lord Voldemort disintegrate into dust. Harry was victorious.

The assorted Death Eaters began to apparate away, knowing that further resistance would only spell death for themselves. Cheers from everyone fighting on the winning side seemed deafening, but all Hermione could focus on was Theo wrapping her tightly in an embrace, lips pressed firmly to her own, pouring every ounce of love that he held for her into it.

As Hermione let Theo hold her in his arms, stroking his hand up and down her back in soothing circles, she tried to make herself recognize that it was _over_. That she could finally relax. That Voldemort was dead now and he wasn't coming back. That the man who had tormented her life for approximately seven years at this point was no more. It was difficult to relax after being so on edge for so long, especially when they had to work through so much to get there.

Harry and Ron found them like that. Hermione had let Theo go, if only to wrap her two friends into a tight, bone crushing hug. "I can't believe you ran off without saying goodbye to me, Harry," she scolded with a laugh. "But I am so proud that you did it. He's _really_ gone."

"I couldn't have done it without the _three_ of you," Harry said, giving Theo a significant look. It was nice to know that Harry well and truly appreciated Theo, especially after the less than warm welcome he'd initially gotten.

"Yeah, you are alright, Nott," Ron said with a hint of a blush on his face, perhaps embarrassed for the abominable way he'd treated Theo at the beginning, when he'd been so jealous of his relationship with Hermione. "I-thanks...that is...I'm glad that you and Hermione are happy together," he said, swallowing thickly. "And I never said...thank you for saving me back at Gringotts."

Hermione squeezed Theo's hand tightly. "It's - you're welcome Weasley," Theo said magnanimously. While she was certain they wouldn't become best friends, she thought that Theo and Ron would at least be able to get along with one another well enough to chit chat with each other, and maybe over time, they could become better friends.

"Well, I am gonna go find my family," Ron said brightly, before Harry agreed to go with him.

When the pair of them was gone, Theo and Hermione began to wander the castle grounds together. It wasn't long until they came across Remus, who was looking a bit worse for wear, but with a huge smile on his face. "Hermione, Theodore!" he called out, waving them over to where he was standing. "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

"Remus," Hermione greeted him. "I am glad to see that you are alright. Is everything okay with Tonks, too?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, yes, Nymphadora is wonderful - just gone to get our son from her mother's house," he said absentmindedly, before a smile lit up his face once again. "Oh, I suppose you hadn't even heard - our son, Teddy, was born last month," he told them proudly.

"That's wonderful, Remus!" Hermione said brightly. "Congratulations. I can't wait to meet him."

"Nymphadora and I talked a lot, and well, we were wondering if you'd be godmother to him, Hermione?" he asked, looking at her hopefully. Perhaps he remembered that the way that they had parted had not been the most pleasant, especially the way he had tried to interfere in their relationship. "You've always had Teddy's best interest at heart. Harry's agreed to be godfather."

Hermione swallowed thickly, looking up to Theo out of the corner of his eyes, hoping he wouldn't object. "Of course I will," she answered, knowing that she really would always keep Teddy's best interest at heart. Who knew, he might still need someone to balance out Remus's pessimism out. Maybe Teddy seeing her relationship with Theo would give him another perspective of what it was like to be a werewolf.

Remus cleared his throat, looking at the way the two teenagers stood together, before his eyes zeroed in on the faint scar at Hermione's neck, exposed by ripped jumper. "It seems that congratulations are in order for you as well," he said, not quite sounding disappointed, but not quite thrilled either. Hermione knew he'd rather they had waited longer before mating one another, or at least until the war was over.

"I- Greyback captured us, and at Malfoy Manor he strongly suggested that I mark her-" Theo said, authoritatively, his arm wrapping around Hermione's shoulders possessively. He had been pushed to mark her, yes, but he wasn't about to apologize for it, either. They were meant for one another, he was more sure of it now than he'd ever been.

"Yes, thank you for your congratulations," Hermione said, with a smile firmly in place. She wasn't going to let Remus think that it was anything less than the wonderful thing that it was. "We are very happy." Hermione pressed herself up to her tiptoes to press a soft kiss to Theo's jaw.

"Of course," Remus nodded, realizing that he might have overstepped.

"Greyback-" Theo started, unsure of what he wanted to say. Wetting his lower lip, he continued. "Greyback _helped_ us when we were at Malfoy Manor. He said that he would put our kind before the Dark Lord every time." His dark eyebrows were furrowed together in thought, unsure of what he was trying to say. Did he want to thank the ferocious werewolf?

"Greyback is dead," Remus said firmly. "I saw him felled down myself. Just remember, you wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for him," he added, pressing his hand to Theo's shoulder. "Well, I better get back to helping Kingsley track the remaining Death Eaters down."

When the two teenagers were alone once again, they turned to face each other. Hermione smiled first. It was infectious, the corners of Theo's mouth turning up in a smile. He pulled her closer to him to press a lingering kiss to her lips, uncaring if anyone saw them. When he finally broke away, he smirked at the dazed look on her face. "Could I interest you into investigating my home with me? I believe I am now the master of the house," he said cheekily, as though the reason wasn't because of the death of his father.

Still, Hermione was desperate to sleep in a real bed, and to be _truly_ alone with Theo for the first time in months. "I could be convinced," she answered back, pressing her face against his chest, hearing his heart beating strongly in his chest, full of love for her.

His eyes softened when he looked into her eyes. "My mate," he said affectionately, before apparating them away.


	36. Chapter 36

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows over this story! I can't believe we've finally reached the last chapter! You can follow me over on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.

Please let me know what you thought of the end!

* * *

Hermione stretched and tensed her body like a sleepy cat, wiggling her toes to shake away the sleep that lingered in her limbs. While she would love to have stayed in bed all day, she knew that she wouldn't have the luxury of sleeping in. There was far too much to do that day.

Moving towards the edge of the bed, her progress was halted by the strong arm that was thrown over her middle pulling her back against the lean body behind her. "Where do you think you're going?" Theo's voice asked, still raspy from sleep. He spooned his naked body around her's, enjoying the way that they fit together like puzzle pieces.

"Getting up for the day," she explained smartly, gasping when his hand slid against the smoothness of her skin. A shiver raced up and down her spine at the feeling of his hot breath on her neck.

"Why would you do that?" he asked, letting his hand cup her sex, eager to have her again that morning, even if they'd had their fill of one another the night before. "When we could stay in bed all day and do this?"

Hermione batted his hands away from her, even though it was hard when he was teasing her with his fingers. "You know that today is Teddy's first birthday, Theo," she scolded, even though she didn't really mean it. "There is no way that I am going to be late for that."

Theo finally relented, rolling onto his back. "Is it really his birthday already?" he asked, rubbing the sleep away from his blue eyes. "The year has gone by quickly."

She hummed in agreement, propping herself up with one arm so that she could look at her mate. Theo was so attractive that she sometimes couldn't believe that she was the one that he loved. "Yes, hard to believe that we will be leaving her in just a few weeks," she agreed.

After the battle, Hermione had taken up Professor McGonagall's offer to return to complete her seventh year of schooling. Theo had joined her, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stand being separated from his mate for a whole school year, even though his time might have been better spent sorting through everything that his inheritance involved. But, Theo enjoyed schooling, so putting things off for a bit wasn't the worst thing in the world either.

McGonagall had been initially supportive of their relationship, until she learned all that it entailed. Knowing about the room that Theo had used for transformations during his sixth year, Hermione requested that they be allowed to room together there for the duration of the school year seeing as they were mates. The older woman had gone ballistic at the idea of two unmarried teenagers living together. Even Remus had not been able to convince her that their mated status superseded any silly wizarding marriage ceremony. She wouldn't budge.

So, Hermione and Theo had decided to do the reasonable thing and run away and get married in a very small, private ceremony. Hermione had never had any dreams of a big wedding and Theo had no family left to his name, so it suited the pair of them well. Their friends still insisted on throwing them some sort of reception, though, but it was not planned until after graduation.

Once McGonagall had no other reason to deny them, Hermione and Theo got the go ahead to share the room together. They also had the inenviable position as the first married couple that Hogwarts had seen in centuries, and were subject to a lot of gossip. It was only made worse by the fact that they were Slytherin and Gryffindor.

Hermione was glad that her friends and Theo's friends seemed to have no problems with their relationship. She had been surprised when a gruff Draco, who had also returned for his so-called eighth year, joined them for dinner one evening and _that_ had quelled all the nasty rumors about her and Theo in an instant. Now, after much apologizing and discussion, she counted Draco as one of her friends, too.

Standing from bed, Hermione looked at Theo over her shoulder, giving him a cheeky grin. "If you get up too, we might be able to do a bit of multi-tasking," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Join me in the shower?"

Her question had Theo scrambling out of bed, suddenly wide awake, and leading her towards the shower hastily, pressing kisses to her bare shoulder blades.

It was nearly an hour later that the young couple emerged from their room, freshly showered and ready for the day. They made their way to the Headmistress's office, where they were meeting Draco, so that they could use her floo to get to the Lupins' cottage. One look at the pair of well-satisfied grins that they both wore and the blond scoffing in irritation.

"Good morning, Draco," Hermione said with a laugh, knowing exactly what he was thinking. She knew just how to turn the tables on him, though, too. "Are you excited to see Harry again?" she asked.

The Slytherin's cheeks turned a pink color, showing his embarrassment at being caught. For someone who normally could be so stoic, he was painfully obvious where his brewing interest in Harry was involved. There was no denying the spark that was burning between the two young men now that the war was over and they were no longer nemeses. While their first meeting after the war had involved a fist fight and rehashing hurt feelings, they had come to an accord by the end of the evening, sharing a pint, even. It had turned into something more, but neither of them seemed to want to admit it out loud for fear of what might change.

"Why would I want to see that four eyes?" he sneered, cheeks turning redder by the second.

"Very original," she chided him for his childish insult, with a roll of her eyes. Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, he just asked about you in his last letter, that's all," she said casually, knowing that he would take the bait.

"He did?" Draco asked, his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Yes, he just wanted to be _sure_ that you were coming to the party," she continued. "I think he really misses spending time with you."

Draco just coughed, unsure of what to say, but there was the unmistakable gleam of hope in his grey eyes. "Well, come on then, what are we waiting for?" he asked, ushering them towards the fireplace. "Teddy only turns one one in his life, and the pair of you have already wasted enough time."

The party had only just started when the students arrived, but they were immediately spotted by Remus Lupin. The older werewolf looked so much better now that the war was over and the Ministry was reviewing a lot of the policies that they had enacted during Voldemort's reign. Things were becoming much easier for werewolves to integrate into their society, even if general perception of the dark creatures remained mixed. He looked much younger and less tired than Hermione had ever known him to look, but she figured it was due in part to his son and wife's love.

"Hello Remus!" Hermione said, brightly. "Where is the birthday boy?" she asked, looking around the room for any sign of the tiny little metamorphmagus.

"Harry's got him right now," Remus answered with a grin.

"I'll just go find him then," Hermione answered, knowing that Theo and Remus could talk on their own for a bit. Their relationship was odd - not nearly as strained as it had once been, but cordial. While they had different opinions on how werewolves should compose themselves, they were in the unique situation of knowing exactly what the other's lycanthropy was like.

"I'll go with you!" Draco added, forging ahead of Hermione, wanting to see the boy-who-lived twice.

Theo watched as his wife and best friend made their way through the party, only to find Harry Potter talking with Ron Weasley. The pair had gone on to auror training and so the trio did not see each other as often, but still remained close. How could they not, after everything they forged together the year before?

"So, you only have a few weeks left before exams," Remus said casually. "Any idea of what you'll do after the pair of you leave Hogwarts?"

Across the room Hermione was hugging Ron tightly, before giving Harry a sideways hug. Then she happily plucked baby Teddy Lupin out of his arms, giving the happy boy a squeeze. "I haven't thought about it too specifically yet. My family home is falling apart, so I could work to repair that," Theo answered, eyes briefly flickering to the other man. "Or take up my family's seat in the Wizengamot, of course. That would leave me with plenty of free time to do whatever I want."

As soon as Draco had shown up at the party, it seemed he was the only thing that Harry could focus on. Before long, Hermione was gesturing to Ron and they were leaving the two men alone. From the looks of it, Draco was trying desperately hard to remain cool, while at the same time making Harry laugh. It was working.

"A noble aim, I'm sure," Remus said with a grin. "You could do a lot of good in the Wizengamot, and I think it's high time that they get some younger blood there. What about Hermione? Has she made any decisions?"

Hermione had received several offers even before she got her NEWTs, including a senior position in the Department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. She had told him that she was worried about taking the position at the Ministry because people might not think she had earned it on her own merits. She had also had offers to apprentice with various masters of magical fields, including a promising Ancient Runes mastery that Theo was personally hoping she would take.

"She's not quite sure yet," Theo answered, his eyes finding his wife once again, drawn into her like a magnet. "Still deciding, but she hopes to finalize everything shortly after the NEWTs."

"Kingsley looks as if he is trying to convince her to join the Ministry again," Remus said, sounding amused at the prospect. "I think he would consider it a personal win if he could get her to join Harry and Ron with the auror department."

Theo snorted at that. "No luck there, I'm afraid," he answered, knowing that Hermione had no desire to be a bad wizard catcher any more. She aspired to a more...safe life. "He won't be able to wear her down."

"Damn," Remus answered with a half-smile. "I suppose that I will lose that bet to Fred and George then."

The young werewolf couldn't even bring himself to roll his eyes at the thought of people taking bets on what his wife would do after school. Instead, he was far too entranced at the sight of her with a baby in her arms, looking radiant and lovely while she laughed with Kingsley and Ron. It moved something primal inside of him, some urge that he didn't even know was lingering under the surface. The desire to have a child, to pup his mate, hit Theo like a ton of bricks and he wasn't entirely sure what to do about it.

Remus must have noticed the clench in his jaw or the way that his predator's gaze lingered on Hermione's form. "Ah, I see that I might need to instigate a new bet," Remus said, clapping Theo on the shoulder. "How long until there are three Notts instead of just two."

Theo was stunned or perhaps a bit embarrassed at being so transparent in his desires. But then, why should he care? Everyone knew that Hermione was _his_ , his mate, his wife, his life. He was very possessive of her and the wolf inside of him was purring at the thought of Hermione growing round with his child - let everyone see the proof of their love for one another.

"That's hardly fair, Remus. You've got inside information," he quipped. Clearing his throat, he smirked. He didn't think that it would take much convincing on his part either, given the loving way that she cradled her godson in her arms.

Needing to touch her, Theo left the other man standing alone. Slinging an arm around Hermione's waist when he got to her side, he pressed a kiss to the faded, silvery scar he'd left on her neck, enjoying her body's physical reaction to him. Theo couldn't wait to get back to their private rooms, to have her all to himself, to talk more about all their bright future had in store.


End file.
